Basic Instinct
by CidGregor
Summary: Something's not quite right with Grace. Strange urges and embarrassing dreams have begun to plague her, with no clear reason why, and she's terrified of Tedd finding out. What's causing these strange feelings...and is it even possible to stop them...?
1. A Case of the Mondays

**Basic Instinct**

by CidGregor

Rated T

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_Legal Disclaimer: El Goonish Shive and all relevant characteristics are owned and copyrighted by Dan Shive._

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_Chapter One: A Case of the Mondays_

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"Welcome back from Spring Break, class! I hope you've all enjoyed your time off, because you won't find much more til' summer!"

He'd said it like it was a joke, really. Like it was supposed to be funny.

Ellen Dunkel wasn't laughing.

"So, let's get right back to it!" the teacher said, like it was the most exciting thing in the world to him. "Now that we've finished our study of reptiles in the fall and crustaceans over the winter, for spring we're moving on to some much closer relatives: Mammals!"

"Oh joy," Ellen murmured to herself, yawning.

"Aww, c'mon Ellen, this is where the really cool stuff starts!" the girl beside her said, and Ellen was astounded to hear that the excitement in her voice rivaled that of the teacher's.

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone this excited about school," Ellen said. "And that includes my second-life self on her first day. I'm telling you, Grace, it's unnatural."

Grace Scuridae tilted her head curiously and gazed back at her. "What's so weird about enjoying biology class?"

"It's boring," Ellen insisted. "Sitting here and listening to some overexcited teacher yammering about a bunch of animals? I'd rather drive a drill bit through my skull."

"Well I'M interested," Grace said matter-of-factly. "I'd just love to get a better understanding of all my animal forms, y'know? I wanna learn everything there is to know about them!"

"Ah. Of course. The scientist angle. I forgot you were Tedd's brain twin."

Grace giggled and Ellen half-smirked before returning to her lazy, half-asleep daze. Just another day at Moperville South, she thought to herself.

It really _was_ just another day. Things had been awfully quiet since Grace's birthday party. Save for Sarah's evil twin incident a couple of weeks ago, nothing terribly exciting had happened; no crazy inter-dimensional goo monsters loosed by Tedd, no raging flame demons or their freakish minions…not even so much as a demonic duck sighting. And on one level Ellen was grateful; it gave her the chance to really ease her way back into school after effectively missing a few weeks due to splitting from Elliot, and to get comfortable with her newfound relationship with Nanase as well. But on another level…

…Well. To put it simply, she was _bored_. Not with anyone or anything in particular, and not all the time, but she'd gotten so used to all the crazy goings-on among her circle of friends that normal days seemed quite boring by comparison. Sarah's evil clone trouble was kind of a breath of fresh air, and heck, she almost wished something like it would happen again, just to make things interesting.

Then again, it was Monday. She _always_ felt exceptionally bored on Mondays. Especially after a nice, relaxing, and enjoyable holiday like Spring Break. She'd loved it.

Grace, on the other hand, had simply _hated_ Spring Break. She'd been so excited to finally be going to school that when she was told she had to stay home for a week, she thought it was some cruel joke. If there was one thing that Grace loved more than anything (besides Tedd, of course), it was learning. Telling her she had to stop learning for a week was like telling her she couldn't cuddle with Tedd. It was a horrid thought, and it made her absolutely _dread_ the thought of summer vacation. She vowed, therefore, to learn as much as possible before then to make up for it. And what a subject to come back to! Mammals! Finally, she could learn all about all the animals whose DNA swam through her body and those of her brothers. It was already fascinating to her, and they hadn't even begun yet!

One compelling hour of studying the dietary habits of small mammals later, Grace walked out of the classroom, hugging her notebook to her chest happily, while Ellen lagged lethargically behind her.

"I'm gonna just _love_ this unit!" Grace exclaimed as they began the walk to their next class.

"You love everything about school," Ellen pointed out. "Even _math_. Ugh, math…"

"Yeah, but I bet I'm _really_ gonna love this! It's gonna be so fun to study all the animals I can turn into!"

"…You're a nerd. Cute, but a nerd."

"Hehe, thanks!"

"You know that's not usually meant as a compliment, right?"

"But Tedd says nerds are sexy."

Ellen snickered. "He _would_ say that…" She looked up at Grace. "How is Tedd, by the way? You two still going strong?"

Almost immediately Grace felt a glow warm her cheeks and spread through her whole body as she thought of Tedd. Not for the first time she lamented on just how extraordinarily lucky she'd been to stumble upon him. If she hadn't seen that article about him and his goo project in the paper that one day, who knew where her life would have taken her…?

Not to the wonderful place it was now, that was for sure. She no longer had anything to fear from Damien, she'd helped free her brothers from his influence, and had even regained a family among them and her grandpa; she had a real home, she had so many wonderful friends…and of course, she had Tedd…probably the best thing of all to happen to her. Not once, in her entire life, had anyone ever treated her more kindly than Tedd did. He always knew how to make her feel special. She adored absolutely everything about him, from his goofy glasses to his crazy transformation fetishes, and she couldn't imagine a more perfect way to spend the day than simply cuddled under a blanket with him holding her…

"Earth to Grace? Helloooo? Come in, Grace!"

"H-huh?" she stammered, glancing over at Ellen, who was staring curiously at her. "Oh! S-sorry, heh…got lost in thought for a minute. Um, what were you saying?"

"I was asking how things are with you and Tedd, is all," Ellen repeated.

"Oh!" she giggled quietly, glowing. "They're great as always. Tedd's a real sweetheart…he always does the most thoughtful things for me…and he's so adorable…"

"So I hear," Ellen said. She slowly smirked. "So, uh…have you two…y'know…?"

"Hm? Have we what?"

"Y'know….slept together?" Ellen gestured.

"Of course, we sleep together all the time. You know that."

"No, no, not _literally_ sleep…I mean…" Ellen grumbled. "You need to get a grasp of slang, girl."

Grace just looked confusedly back at her, not understanding.

Ellen gave an exaggerated sigh. "I meant, have you guys…y'know, been…intimate?"

Grace got it this time, her face exploding into a blush. "O-oh! You mean…oh…"

Ellen nudged her. "C'mon, Grace, you can tell the girls…"

"…But there's only one of you."

"Never mind that. C'mon, spill. It's not like it's dirty or anything."

Grace fought hard against her blush, but she wasn't succeeding very well. "No, we…we haven't ever gone that far."

"Really? Never?" Ellen echoed.

"Nuh-uh. I guess I…haven't really thought about it."

"Tedd never asked?"

Her blush deepened at that concept. "No! Never!"

"…Wow."

"What?"

Ellen shook her head. "Nothing. Just not what I was expecting."

"…What _were _you expecting?" Grace said, almost afraid to ask.

Ellen smirked again. "That you've been going at it like rabbits."

Grace now resembled a tomato. "Eww, Ellen!"

Ellen laughed out loud. "I'm just saying! Tedd's kind of a pervert like that, and you guys are certainly smitten with each other--"

"Ew-ew-ew-ew, stoooop!" Grace said, covering her eyes. "I don't wanna think about Tedd that way yet!"

Ellen wiggled her eyebrows. "_Yet_?"

"ELLEN!"

Ellen clapped a hand over her shoulder, still chuckling. "Alright, alright, you win, I'll shut up…c'mon, we might have time to grab a snack or something before our next class starts…"

Grace had stopped listening, however. Despite her insistence that Ellen stop her interrogation, for some reason the questions stuck in her mind. She'd never really talked with Tedd about sex, except for that one time at her party, and that wasn't really the same thing, she admitted to herself. It wasn't to say the idea _never_ crossed her mind, but it was always a distant thought at best, and as far as she knew Tedd was the same way. They both always seemed perfectly happy with the way things already were. They were happy with tender kisses and warm cuddling and endless hours of just enjoying each other's company. There was no need to complicate things.

…So why was she still thinking about what Ellen had said?

"Hey, watch out!"

"H-huh--Eeep!" Grace squeaked and gasped as she opened her eyes just in time to see herself run head-on into another student and stumble backward, off-balance.

"Whoa!" a male voice rumbled, and a second later, strong hands shot out and caught her before she could fall. "You alright?"

Grace looked up at the voice's owner, and she was surprised to find herself staring up into blonde hair and an incredibly handsome set of facial features offset by an earring through one ear. "…Justin?"

"Might wanna watch where you're going next time," Justin Tolkiberry said with a friendly smile, hoisting her back to her feet. "You didn't twist anything there, did you?"

"N-no, I'm fine," Grace said, feeling oddly embarrassed, and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on. "Sorry about that, I was just…thinking."

"It's fine, really. No harm done," he assured her.

"Hey Justin, seen Nanase around?" Ellen questioned.

"She just slipped into the bathroom," Justin pointed a few feet behind him.

"Mm…is that so…" Ellen said with a bit of a smile. "Now that you mention it I better make a stop myself…" She smiled wider and casually strolled past Justin and into the bathroom herself.

Justin chuckled, turning to Grace. "I think she almost enjoys sneaking around with Nanase," he commented.

Grace simply smiled awkwardly and nodded, her legs strangely frozen for some reason.

"…Grace? You sure you're okay?"

"H-huh? Oh! Fine, really!" Grace insisted quickly.

Justin raised an eyebrow at her, but he didn't have time to question her further before the five-minute bell rang, and his eyes widened. "Dah, I'm gonna be late! I gotta run, see you later Grace!"

He hurried off, leaving a dazed and confused Grace standing rooted to the spot. _What…what WAS that…?_ she asked herself. She was still standing there two minutes later when Ellen returned from the bathroom, the fiery-red-headed figure of Nanase Kitsune trailing casually behind her.

"Hey, Grace, you didn't have to wait for us," Ellen said.

No response.

"Hey, Grace!"

She jumped. "Huh?"

"Girl, that's like the third time in five minutes you've completely spaced out. What's with you this time?"

Grace shook her head sharply, trying to clear it. "It was the weirdest thing…"

"Weirder than anything Tedd cooks up? I doubt it," Nanase chimed in with a smirk.

"…I think for a second there I was…attracted to Justin," Grace murmured, surprising herself.

Nanase raised an eyebrow, giving Grace an odd look, but Ellen just laughed it off. "Well, Justin's an attractive guy. I'd certainly call him cute--…what?" she trailed off as Nanase gave her an evil eye.

"No, I mean…not just like thinking someone is cute," Grace said. "I mean…I actually felt attracted to him."

"Ehh, I'm sure anyone with an interest in men has been attracted to Justin at one point or another. It's like a…magnetic aura around gay guys," Nanase added with a chuckle.

"It still felt weird."

Still Ellen waved it off. "Don't worry about it. It'll pass. Now hurry up, we're gonna be late!"

Grace didn't say anything more, shaking her head again vigorously as she walked onward with Ellen. _Great,_ she thought to herself, _now I have two problems…first Ellen's dumb sex questions, now this…_

Why had she felt that attraction to Justin of all people? It was definitely an uncomfortable thing to be feeling. No one but Tedd had ever made her feel that way before…why on earth would she suddenly feel it from Justin too…? It didn't make sense. At all.

She shook her head once more and pushed it from her mind, hoping it would pass as Ellen claimed.

Unfortunately for her, Ellen would only be half-right.

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Comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated, as always.


	2. Almost Normal

**Basic Instinct**

by CidGregor

* * *

_Chapter Two: Almost Normal_

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"So here's the way I see it."

"Oh, this'll be good…"

"Ellen, in a _devious_ plot to destroy all that is good and sexy about lesbians--"

"No, stop right there…"

"--combined the alluring and seductive powers of her Venus form with archaic and forbidden dark magic--"

"Tedd…"

"--to command control over Nanase's mind to make her _think_ she's a lesbian--"

"Tedd!"

"--and then _intentionally_ make out with my ugly cousin in front of me until the very _idea_ of lesbians brings me nothing but disgust!"

"TEDD!"

"…what?"

"That's ridiculous and stupid."

"Explain!"

"Conspiracy theories aside, Ellen's too lazy to get out of BED half the time, much less concoct an evil scheme to ruin lesbians for you."

"I knew it--she got to you too!" Tedd Verres exclaimed, eyes flashing behind large glasses. "Her own brother!"

Elliot Dunkel rolled his eyes and then closed them, lounging on the beat-up couch in Tedd's basement. "Sure, Tedd. She got to me. You cracked the case. We're ALL out to get you in a fiendish cover-up to make lesbians totally un-sexy."

"Y'know, you could at least _try _to indulge me for a minute," Tedd grumbled from the computer desk across the room.

"Y'know, you could at least _try_ to be supportive of their relationship," Elliot countered smoothly.

"…Bah."

"I'm serious. They have enough to worry about hiding it from Nanase's family. The least you could do is support her on this end of things."

"I know, I know, as long as they're happy, yadda yadda yadda…"

"Good."

"…I still like my conspiracy idea better."

"Oh, you're just riled up because Spring Break is over."

"That could not be farther from the truth," Tedd insisted.

"Sure it's not. You only griped about it _all through class_ today."

"That was just blowing off steam! Being back probably has its upsides. …Probably. Besides…"

"Besides what?"

"…Ah, nothing."

"No, I'm curious now."

"…It's stupid, forget it."

"Tedd, c'mon, I won't laugh."

"…Yeah, yeah…" he gave in. "…Well not that you'd probably care that much anyway, but now that the break's over Grace will probably be a lot happier."

"…She will?"

Tedd smiled vaguely to himself. "I think she's addicted to school. She loves it. So much so that she got really down when they told her she had to stay at home for a week and do nothing."

Elliot didn't seem terribly surprised. "Ah, that does sound like Grace," he admitted. "So she was mopey and stuff for a whole week?"

"Mopey, depressed, unmotivated, less…"

"…less…?" Elliot probed.

"Less…" Tedd's mouth moved, but nothing was coming out, like he couldn't find the right word, and his face was turning slightly pink. Which gave Elliot a pretty good idea what he was talking about.

"Less affectionate?" Elliot offered.

"YES, thank you," Tedd sighed in relief. "Much better word."

"Better than what, exact--…actually never mind, I don't want to know…"

Tedd smirked. "Now who has a dirty mind? I was gonna say 'lovey-dovey.'"

"…Shut up."

"What were YOU thinking about?" Tedd teased. "Did a certain girlfriend leave bad thoughts in your brain?"

"N-no, of course not!" Elliot insisted. "We haven't done anything!"

"Mm. Bet that makes you miss those hot makeout sessions in broom closets with her double, then." His smirk grew. "Or is real Sarah doing that for you now too?"

Elliot turned crimson for a moment, and Tedd almost thought he might have hit a gold mine. But whether or not that was the case, Tedd never found out, for they were both distracted by the sound of the door at the top of the stairs opening and a familiar voice calling down. "Tedd? I'm home!"

"Grace!" Elliot said quickly, glad for the distraction. "Grace is here!"

"Oh, hi Elliot," they heard her say as she came bounding down the stairs, already shifting from her human self to her half-squirrel form.

Tedd grinned at Elliot for a moment longer, but let it go as he stood to greet his girlfriend with a warm hug. "Hey there. Good first day back?"

Grace stepped into it, hugging him back. "Yeah, mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Oh, Ellen was being a tease this morning, and then I crashed right into Justin, and then the weirdest thing happened…"

Elliot cleared his throat. "Well, I, ah, better get going. See you two later."

"Seeya," Tedd waved.

"Bye Elli--…" Grace suddenly trailed off as her eyes fell on him.

"…Grace? You okay?" Tedd asked her, but she didn't respond.

"…What, do I have something on my face?" Elliot chuckled.

"N-no! Nothing! I'm fine!" she suddenly blurted out.

"…Okay then," Elliot said with a raised eyebrow and an amused smile. "Later guys."

Tedd hadn't thought much of his girlfriend's odd reaction to Elliot initially, but as Elliot climbed up the stairs and Grace's eyes followed him the whole way, he started to wonder.

"Uhh…Grace?"

The girl jolted in his arms and whirled back to face him. "Yes! Hi!"

"Hi…" Tedd responded slowly. "…Why were you staring at Elliot?"

"O-oh, that…um, I just…smelled perfume on him!"

"…Perfume."

"Y-yeah, I know, weird, right?" Grace went on. "It's just barely there, I only smelled it once I got my squirrel senses back, but it's totally on him, it smells just like that one that Sarah always wears!"

"I think I would've noticed if he was wearing Sarah's perfume…"

"I-It's just _barely_ there," Grace assured him. "Like maybe a little rubbed off on him--"

Instantly Tedd's eyes lit up and he grinned. "Oh, _really_…? Hah, I _knew_ he left in a hurry for a reason! He was trying to avoid answering me!"

"H-heh, yeah, that's probably it," Grace agreed.

"Oooh, I've got him now," he said with a scheming smile, completely forgetting about the last few moments. "This is perfect tease material…with the right spin on it, it might even reach the level of blackmail! Eee-hehehe…"

"Oh, stop," Grace admonished with a smile, seemingly back to normal. "We both know you aren't gonna _blackmail_ _Elliot_."

"…Oh, all right, I'll just tease him over it," Tedd admitted.

Grace giggled. "There's my big, soft, cuddly Teddy bear…"

Tedd smiled back at her, leaning closer. "You like that nickname way too much."

"Well it suits you," Grace said with another giggle, and leaned in closer as well. "Underneath all that dirty humor, you're really just a big huggable teddy bear…"

"Huggable is good…" Tedd agreed, and wrapped his arms around her lower back. "But it'd be even better if I was kissable too…"

"Aww, don't worry…" she echoed his tone, her own arms encircling his neck. "You're _very_ kissable, too…"

Whatever distance remained between them was closed in the next moment as their embrace tightened and their lips met, each of them smiling against the other. They rocked slowly on the spot, holding tight to each other as they held the kiss, and it was a full minute before they parted, grinning like fools.

"I love the welcome home kiss," Tedd said.

"Me too," Grace sighed dreamily. "Much happier than the morning goodbye kiss…"

"Not as good as the cuddling-you-goodnight kiss, though," Tedd teased. "That's a good one…"

"Yeah…but the just-woke-up good-morning kiss is my favorite…"

"Ooh, yeah, me too…"

They shared a quiet giggle over their silly kiss names and simply smiled at each other for a bit, and Tedd took the opportunity to admire the girl in his arms and thank whatever divine power had led her to his doorstep that fateful night. It was a wonder to him that he'd ever managed to go through life without her before then. That night changed his life in so many ways. He'd become more confident in himself, he took better care of himself, he was even less bothered by the teasing of bullies at school. His life as a whole was brighter ever since she'd become a part of it. Like she'd been custom-made by God, or evolution, or _whatever_, just for him. She was a goddess. A goddess in squirrel-girl form.

Grace finally seemed to notice his gaze, and blushed a little. "Whaaat?"

"Just looking at the most beautiful girl in the world, is all."

"Aww, I'm not all that great…"

"Oh, but you are. I really don't say it enough, honestly…"

"Tedd, you say it every day…"

"Which is not nearly enough. Better make it at least _twice_ a day."

"Aww, now you're just fishing for another kiss," Grace giggling through her blush.

"Maybe I am. You gonna bite?"

She flashed her teeth in response and tackled him to the couch, kissing him again.

"I'll take that as a yes," Tedd murmured back. He relaxed into it, the rest of the world temporarily forgotten, and as usual he was more than content to lie there and kiss her for a while, and maybe cuddle with her for a quick nap as they often did.

Something about _this_ kiss, though, seemed extra sweet. There was something more to it this time…he wasn't exactly sure what it was, but he definitely liked it. Maybe it was how long she was holding it, or how her lips felt more soft and full than usual, or how she was putting a little extra passion into an otherwise common kiss…or maybe it was all of the above. Whatever it was, he was grinning ear to ear when they finally parted and she smiled warmly at him.

"What all was that for?" Tedd asked teasingly.

Grace nuzzled her cheek against his. "I'm just…really glad to see you after what happened today…"

"Oh yeah, you said something weird happened…?"

Grace opened her mouth to say something, but seemed to decide against it and shook her head. "It's nothing, really," she assured him. "The point is, it made me…really glad to see you…"

"You sure everything's okay?" Tedd pressed anyway, if only out of concern.

"Everything's fine," she assured him. "Promise."

Tedd was still a little curious, but he let it go as she curled up against his chest and closed her eyes, and there was really nothing else he could do but wrap his arms tighter around her and cuddle her back, smiling as they both settled in for a nap.

"Love you," Tedd whispered.

"Love you too," she cooed back, and drifted away…

* * *

_She was kissing him all over his face, her hands running freely under his shirt as he held her pressed against the wall, stroking across his chest and around to his back. His own kisses wandered from her lips to her cheeks and down her neck while his fingers danced over her shoulders, caressing them. It was sheer bliss. She could barely stand it. She had to have more. _

_She spun him around and stumbled backward, falling right onto the bed. She rolled over with him, kissing him fiercely, until she was laying on top of him and her hands were feverishly working to open the buttons down his shirt until she lost her patience and ripped the last few open in a fit of passion. Time seemed to shift; now little more than underwear remained between their bodies, and she couldn't stop kissing him, couldn't stop touching him, caressing his body, sighing her joyous approval as he did the same to her…she couldn't wait another minute, she had to have him, she had to—_

"_Ohh, Tedd!"_

Her eyes bolted open with a gasp, her whole body jerking and throwing itself clean off the couch to land unglamorously on the cold basement floor, extra chilling against her flushed body. She breathed heavily, rapidly, trying to calm her heart as it pounded in her chest at insane speeds, and almost gave herself a heart attack when she glanced at her former seat and saw Tedd lying there, but calmed again as she realized he was fast asleep, and thankfully, fully clothed.

_A dream…it was just a dream…_

"Grace, Tedd, dinner!" she suddenly heard Tedd's father call down the stairs.

"C-coming!" she called back shakily, and as she watched Tedd start to stretch and yawn, she scrambled away from him, up the stairs and into the bathroom to splash cold water on her face and try to slow her racing pulse. But it did nothing to make her forget the dream unlike any she had ever dreamed before.

_What…what's wrong with me…?_

* * *

Comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated, as always.


	3. Blue Eyed Blonde

**Basic Instinct**

by CidGregor

* * *

_Chapter Three: Blue-eyed Blonde_

* * *

"Hey, uh, Tedd?"

Tedd glanced up from the table, where a moment earlier he had been staring blankly at his lunch. "Hm?"

Elliot looked curiously across the lunch table at him. "You feeling okay, man?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, aside from the fact that you've been staring holes in your lunch for the last ten minutes…"

"And that you haven't insulted my chest," Sarah added.

"Or cracked any perverted jokes," Susan murmured.

"…Well, I guess we were just a bit concerned that you weren't yourself, is all," Elliot finished.

"I just didn't feel like cracking dirty jokes today, alright?"

"…Yeah, exactly," Elliot said. "You never 'don't feel like it.' It's, like, your thing."

"Okay, fine. Sarah, hit puberty and grow a chest, Susan, you should start a Naked Fridays movement. Happy?"

Elliot glanced beside him at Sarah and raised an eyebrow, but she looked just as confused as he did. "Uhh…Tedd?"

Tedd, however, returned to staring at his lunch.

"What's his deal?" Susan wondered.

Elliot watched him for a long moment, and eventually looked at the girls. "Hey, would you two mind…?"

Susan shrugged. "Whatever. C'mon, Sarah."

Elliot gave his girlfriend an encouraging nod, and after a moment of hesitation Sarah nodded back and followed Susan in standing up and moving to another area of the cafeteria with their lunches. With just him and Tedd left, Elliot scooted closer and lowered his voice below the general din of the student body. "You wanna tell me what's really up?"

"Nothing that concerns you," Tedd answered cryptically.

"Is it about Grace?"

Tedd said nothing.

"It's about Grace, isn't it?"

"I said it doesn't concern you."

"Tedd, come on, I came to you about the whole fighting with Sarah thing. We can talk about this stuff, can't we?"

"…I guess."

"So talk to me."

"Ugh…Fine, if you'll shut your trap…" Tedd muttered. "…Y'know how I said I was glad school's back 'cause Grace would be happier for it?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Yeah, well, she's not. Not exactly."

"She still mopey?"

"Not mopey. She's better than she was before school started again, but she…I dunno, she was distant yesterday."

"…Didn't seem that way when I saw her," Elliot said.

"I mean after that," Tedd amended. "She was fine for maybe that half-hour or so. But then we took a nap together, and when I woke up she'd gone upstairs without me, and she barely looked at me all night."

Elliot frowned a little. "Why would she do that?"

Tedd flushed a little. "I'm half-afraid I offended her…"

"…How?"

"I really don't want to talk about it."

"That doesn't help me, Tedd."

"Tough."

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad. It's not like she walked in on you with a dirty magazine or anything." Elliot paused. "…did she?"

"No," he insisted. "…Probably just as bad though…"

"…Uhh…"

Tedd sighed and gave up. "I'm afraid maybe I….I dunno…that I might've groped her or something in my sleep."

Elliot processed that for a moment with minimal wincing at the mental image. "Well…_if_ that's what happened…I'm sure Grace wouldn't be _that_ upset about it. I mean, you were asleep. You can't exactly be held responsible for sleepwalking…or sleep-groping, or whatever. You're not in control of yourself."

"That doesn't make it okay," Tedd countered.

"…I suppose, but…well, you certainly aren't going to change anything either way unless you talk to her and apologize. Might not even take _that_ much. For all you know she's just embarrassed about having dirty dreams or something."

"Grace? Having dirty dreams?"

"…okay, so that might not be the best example, but still. It could just be her own issue, not anything you did."

"I guess…" Tedd trailed off. "It's just she usually talks to me about everything…"

"Everyone's entitled to secrets. You can't be involved in every single detail of her life."

"This is different. Like she's…_afraid_ to talk to me now."

"…Tedd, that doesn't make any sense."

"I know it doesn't." Tedd sighed. "And that's why I'm worried…"

* * *

"…so I told the guy to buzz off, but I swear he would NOT shut up and leave me alone," Ellen was saying, though Grace only very distantly heard her, despite being side by side. "And THEN he tried to put his arm around me. So finally I just decked the guy."

"Jeez, Ellen, that sucks," came Justin Tolkiberry's sympathetic response, again distant to Grace's ears.

Ellen meanwhile rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I swear, Justin, you're like the only decent guy I've met at this school so far."

Justin smiled a bit embarrassedly and rubbed the back of his head. "Heh…I'm flattered."

"Almost makes you agree with Susan's anti-male ramblings sometimes," Nanase chimed in with a smirk.

"Haha, yeah, I know, right?" Ellen chuckled. "Maybe we should get Tedd to turn Justin into one of the girls again, eh, Grace?"

"……"

"Grace?"

"……"

"Grace!"

"Huh…?" Grace murmured distractedly.

Ellen glared at the girl beside her. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous. You've done nothing but space out every other minute for two solid days now. Are we boring you?"

Grace shook her head slowly. "No, no, nothing like that…just had a lot on my mind."

"Well get it off your mind, you're starting to weird me out! What happened to giggly cheery bouncing off the walls FUN Grace?"

"I'm still here! I told you, I just have stuff on my mind!"

"C'mon, Ellen, lay off her…" Justin said.

Grace was pretty sure he said more, and that the others carried on the conversation with him, but Grace had stopped listening again, returning to her own troubled thoughts. That dream the night before had gotten to her more than even she herself had first realized.

_Why_ had she dreamed that? She'd never thought that way about anyone before, not even Tedd. Or at least not with that level of detail, or anywhere in the immediate future. It was always such a distant thought. She was completely content with hugging and snuggling and kissing, she had no desire yet to move the relationship to _that_ level, did she?

No, of course she didn't. It had to have been a fluke, just like the weird moments of attraction to Justin and Elliot. Ellen had put bad thoughts in her mind that somehow stuck there, that had to be it. That _was _when it had started, after all, wasn't it? When Ellen had made those crude comments about her and Tedd? Yes, that had to be the explanation…

Having momentarily convinced herself of this, she looked up from her musings to rejoin the conversation, only to find that her pace had slowed considerably, and her friends had walked well ahead of her without her noticing. She let out a quiet squeak and jogged to catch up with them as they rounded a corner, but as soon as she too turned the corner she found herself crashing straight into a warm body and toppling forward on top of it.

"Waahhh!"

"Huh—whoa!"

_**WHAM!**_

"Owies…" Grace murmured as she and the unfortunate victim of her haste hit the floor roughly, Grace lying dazedly atop the other person.

"You alright there, miss?" the figure asked, a soft, soothing male voice.

Grace looked down into the face of her victim. His hair, though disheveled in the fall, was no less eye-catching, a smooth, wavy blonde 'do that hung past his ears. His strikingly blue eyes shone with concern as he looked as her, and his lips were certainly forming words, but Grace was staring at them too much to notice.

"Miss? Hello? Are you okay?"

"Huh? O-oh! I-I'm fine, thank you. I should be asking you that, actually…"

"Oh, don't worry about me, I take worse hits than that all the time," he said, smiling up at her. "I _would_ like to get up in the near future, though…"

"Oh, yes, of course, sorry!" Grace said quickly and scrambled to her feet to help him up, instantly blushing at how strong his grip was and how toned his body seemed to be. "I, um, I'm really sorry, I was in a hurry to catch my friends and I wasn't watching where I was going and--"

"Hey, no worries, I'm fine," he assured her with a smile, and gave her a curious look. "Hey, you're that new girl. Grace, isn't it?"

Grace blinked in surprise. "You know me?"

The boy chuckled, a friendly and calming sound to Grace's ears. "Well, you're kinda hard to miss. I don't think I've ever seen someone quite as excited as you to be at _school_, of all things. Most people can't stand being in this place any longer than necessary. I know I sure feel that way sometimes, heh…"

"Really? But school is so fun!"

"Heh, well, maybe when you're a kid, yeah…most of us get burnt out by middle school, though. But hey, if you like it, more power to you." He smiled, flashing very nice teeth.

"H-hehe…" Grace smiled back. "Well, you know me, but I don't think I know you…"

"Alex," the boy offered promptly. "Running back for the football team."

"…but you're standing still."

"…Pardon?"

"You said you were running back to your, um…foots ball team? But you're standing still."

"Oh, no, I meant my _position_ on the team is running back."

"…Erm…"

"…You don't know much about sports, huh?"

"No, I guess not…" she admitted, a bit embarrassed suddenly at this hole in her knowledge.

"Well hey, no worries, I can help ya learn, if you want."

Her eyes lit up instantly. "Yeah! I love learning!"

"Heh, no wonder you love school, then."

"Oh totally! I wanna learn everything I can! You really don't mind teaching me?"

"Not at all. Always happy to make a new fan."

"Cool! I wanna know all about sports and foots ball!"

Alex chuckled again, that sound that was so pleasant to Grace's ears. "It's 'football,' actually…"

"Football," she repeated. "And football is…?"

"It's a sport. A game."

Her eyes widened even more, if that was possible. "Game?.! I love games! Can I play?.!"

Alex laughed outright this time. "Hey, hey, slow down, girl, one thing at a time. Worry about _how_ to play first…"

"Okay!" she said, no less excited. "So how do you play?"

"Well," he said, pulling a brown and white object from his backpack that looked like a pointed oval, "it all starts with this. The football…"

* * *

"…so at the end of the four quarters, you add up all the touchdowns and field goals and so on, and whichever team scored the most points wins. Simple."

"It sounds dangerous!" Grace said concernedly. "Do people get hurt a lot?"

"Well, now and then, yeah, sometimes," Alex admitted, "but there's all kinds of safety rules and protective gear to keep it from happening very often."

"Have you gotten hurt before?"

"Oh, never anything serious. A few bumps and bruises, tops."

Grace gave him an almost admiring look. "You must be really brave to risk that all the time…"

"Aww, it's no big deal," he said modestly. "Hey, listen, it's time for my next class, but if you wanna learn about it in more detail we can talk some more later…maybe at lunch?"

"Y-yeah, sure, I'd like that!"

"Cool. I'll see you there, then."

"O-okay! Bye, Alex!"

The boy waved at her as he walked into a nearby classroom, leaving Grace with an odd, warm glow that was sharply chilled by a hand clapping on her shoulder.

"All right, way to go, Grace!" she heard Ellen snicker.

"H-huh?" she said, startled, almost as though snapping out of a daze.

Ellen appeared in front of Grace a moment later, laughing jovially. "I tell ya, I've seen some flirting in my time, and I've even done some myself, but I have to hand it to you, Grace, _that _was some top-notch, Grade-A flirting."

Grace's eyes bulged.

"You really gotta show me some of those moves, girl. I had no idea you were such a natural. 'Ooh, you're soooo brave…' Wow, that…just _wow, _talk about a classic move made deadly…" Ellen laughed again and clapped Grace's shoulder. "You are definitely the master of flirting…"

Grace remained frozen, however.

"…Uh, Grace…?"

Grace's expression suddenly became horrified.

"Grace?"

"I was _**WHAT**_?.!"

* * *

Comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated, as always.


	4. Discomfort Zone

**Basic Instinct**

by CidGregor

* * *

_Chapter Four: Discomfort Zone_

* * *

For all the strange goings-on that had become practically the norm in Tedd's life, somehow the dinner table had never managed to be an awkward thing. Lonely, perhaps, after the departure of his mother. Formal, sure, when they had Nanase's family over on the occasional holiday. And certainly silly at Grace's birthday party, with everyone gender-swapped and at least on some level enjoying it. But never awkward.

This, however, Tedd was sure, was the _definition_ of an awkward dinner table. Other than the scraping of forks and knives, and the occasional tobacco-laced cough from his father, there wasn't a sound. His dad wasn't particularly talkative at dinner in the first place, so that part wasn't anything odd, but the complete silence from Grace was extremely unnerving. Her eyes never left her plate, which she only picked and nibbled at, and she barely spoke two words. Not for Tedd's lack of trying either. He'd tried no less than three times to strike up a conversation with her about something, anything, and each time she would turn slightly pink, give the most minimal answer possible and then fall silent again. It was seriously strange behavior. Even his dad had to have noticed it, even if he didn't say anything about it.

"So, Grace," he attempted once more, "making any new friends at South?"

Her reaction this time varied only slightly, in that she turned a slightly deeper shade of pink before murmuring, "A couple…" and falling silent again.

Tedd didn't give up quite so easily this time. "Tell me about them. Did you meet them on your own or did the gang introduce you?"

"O-on my own…" Grace murmured again, and suddenly stood up. "May I be excused?"

"Of course, Grace," Mister Verres said before Tedd could insist otherwise. "Don't forget to wash your plate."

Grace nodded silently and gathered her plate and silverware, darting into the kitchen without a peep further.

The instant she was gone Tedd rounded on his father in a harsh whisper. "How can you just let her run off like that when there's obviously something wrong?.!"

"I had assumed you and her were in the middle of a fight of some sort," he answered matter-of-factly. "I didn't see fit to prolong the awkward moment any further."

Tedd froze up at that. "…You think she's mad at me?"

"The silent treatment IS a rather common technique used against someone who the user is angry with."

"But…why would she be mad at me? I haven't done anything! Have I?"

"Have you?" his father countered, looking curiously at him.

"I…I don't _think_ so…" Tedd said uncertainly, "unless…"

"Unless?" his father probed.

Suddenly his fears from earlier that afternoon rose up forefront in his mind again. HAD he done something inappropriate in his sleep without knowing it that afternoon? She hadn't been the same since that afternoon, after all, the timeframe fit…maybe he DID grope her…or _worse_…

"Tedd?"

"…I need to talk to her…"

"Good idea," his father sagely agreed. "Go on, I'll clean up dinner."

"Thanks," Tedd replied, and hurried toward the kitchen, but Grace had already left. He strode instead toward her room, and softly knocked on the door. "Grace?"

No answer.

"…Grace, can I talk to you? Please?"

"…I'm doing homework," came her quiet reply.

Tedd didn't relent. "Grace, please. It's important."

"Grace? C'mon, Grace, please don't be mad at me..."

The door suddenly opened, and Grace peeked out at him in mild surprise. "…What makes you think I'd be mad at you?"

Tedd rubbed the back of his head, pink-faced. "You just…haven't been the same since yesterday afternoon after that nap, and I…well, I was afraid that I might have done something a little…inappropriate…"

"Inappropriate? Like what?"

Tedd's cheeks resembled tomatoes now. "U-um…like…t-touching you, in…places…"

Grace blushed right back. "O-oh, no, no no no, Tedd, of course not!" she said hurriedly. "You didn't do anything like that at all!"

Tedd's relief was instant and immense. "Oh thank god…" he said after a deep breath. "I thought you were _pissed_ at me…stupid dad making me paranoid…"

"No, no, Tedd, you didn't do ANYTHING wrong," Grace assured him again.

"Glad to hear it," Tedd said with a smile, but it faded a minute later. "But…if I didn't do anything, then…what's wrong?"

The pink in Grace's face doubled. "N-nothing, really…"

"Grace, you've been a whole different person the last twenty-four hours and it's worrying me. I can tell something's wrong, Grace, just…please, tell me."

Grace seemed to battle with something inside her head for a long time, her fingers fidgeting nervously as she thought, but Tedd waited patiently. He was getting to the bottom of this, right here and now.

"…It's just that I…" Grace began, and Tedd was surprised to see her eyes suddenly swimming with emotion and her body almost trembling, like she was on the verge of divulging some horribly bloody secret.

"Grace…? Come on, Grace, hon, whatever it is, you can tell me…" Tedd assured her with a gentle stroke of his hand over her cheek.

It was almost as though a dam broke at his touch, and before he even realized what had happened Grace's arms were tight around his torso and she was sobbing into his shoulder.

"G-Grace?.!"

"_Ohh Tedd, I'm such a bad person, I'm so sorry, I flirted with another boyyyy!!_" she wailed.

For a second, Tedd was sure he's misheard her. Grace, flirting with someone…else? No…no, that was ridiculous…wasn't it…?

"Grace, honey, shh…shh, calm down…calm down and start from the beginning, okay? Slower..."

Grace composed herself after a minute, just enough to tell him the whole story about bumping into Alex the football player and making friends with him and learning all about football and how she'd been so happy to make a new friend until Ellen came along and pointed out the so-called 'Grade-A flirting' that had ultimately left her in her current fit of hysterics.

"…and I didn't even _know _I was doing it, I swear, but Ellen said it _was_, and I felt so _horrible_ I couldn't even look you in the eye anymore, ohh Tedd, I'm so sorrryyy!.!.!" she wailed sadly, sobbing and sniffling still but otherwise falling silent, and it was all Tedd could do at the moment to slowly rub her back and soothe her with his embrace, because in his head a war was raging.

'Grace…flirting…with other guys…?' Half of him thought in horror and fear. 'No, not just any other guy, a FOOTBALL player…!'

_It's not that bad, _the other half of him tried to rationalize._ It was an accident, she didn't mean anything by it._

'Oh god, oh god, I can't compete with that,' his weaker half fretted, 'oh god, she's gonna like him better, I just know it…'

_She will not, she loves you,_ the second voice insisted.

'Not for long…she'll fall for the muscle hunky football player, I just know it…'

_She will not fall for him! Remember what Elliot told you the first day back after the party! She loves YOU!_

'Not anymore she won't,' the small, fearful voice sobbed. 'Face it, she found someone BETTER, it was inevitable, there's a whole SCHOOL full of guys way better than me, it was never going to last—

_For god's sake, GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! _the second half nearly shouted at him, making Tedd hold Grace tighter._ For God's sake, LOOK at the girl! She's in tears because she thinks she CHEATED on you, and all she did was TALK to a guy! She didn't even KNOW she was flirting! This isn't about YOU, you selfish prick, it's about HER needing reassurance and guidance from her BOYRFRIEND, so for the love of Christ grow a freaking backbone!_

'……'

The small voice was quieted. And Tedd knew which one to listen to.

"Grace…it's okay, sweetheart…it's okay…listen to me…"

Grace looked up at him with shining eyes. "Please forgive me, Tedd, I--Mpphh!"

Tedd silenced her with a single finger to her lips. "Grace. Listen to me. You didn't do _anything_ wrong, you understand me…?"

"But Ellen said--"

"I don't care what Ellen said. You didn't do anything wrong. Ellen can think you were flirting all she wants, but you didn't mean it. You weren't trying to flirt and you didn't WANT to flirt, and as far as I'm concerned that means you were NOT flirting."

"I wasn't…?"

Tedd shook his head. "Absolutely not. You were just…trying to make a new friend. And that's perfectly okay. It's good to make friends. I'm sure this…Alex guy'll make a great friend…and you shouldn't feel guilty about just talking to him."

"Really…?"

Tedd nodded and gripped her shoulders firmly. "I love you, Grace. And I TRUST you. I know you would never do anything to intentionally hurt me. You don't have anything to be sorry for. Not a single thing."

"But--"

"Not. A single. Thing."

"…Tedd…"

Tedd wiped her eyes dry, smiling. "Now quit crying and kiss me, 'cause it's been a full day since the last one and I'm starting to suffer withdrawal."

He didn't need to ask twice. A tearful laugh burst out from her, followed almost immediately by a wide, relieved smile, and before he knew it he felt her lips on his again, and for the longest time he simply held that kiss, quiet and loving, catching up on the lost day, and the stronger voice in his head, if it had a mouth, was smiling its approval.

But the smaller voice…

No. It was wrong.

It HAD to be wrong…

* * *

"…And after ALL that, you guys STILL didn't do it?.!"

"Ellen, you can keep asking her that, but the answer's not gonna be any different," Nanase pointed out. "A talk like that would be overwhelming enough, there's no need to compound it with sex, too."

"But still!" Ellen insisted. "That's like the most romantic speech ever! Girl's MELT over that stuff!"

"We do not," Nanase countered.

"Oh, now you're just in denial!"

"Guys, really, it's not a big deal!" Grace chimed in suddenly, halting the impending argument with her broad smile. "I'm fine now, everything's figured out! Tedd and I are great!"

"…but you HAD to have at LEAST--"

"Ellen, really, we didn't do anything," Grace insisted. "Can you please let it go? That's what got me all weird in the first place."

Ellen seemed to want to open her mouth and keep going, but she finally decided against it and gave it up, and for that Grace was quite grateful. She'd just fixed things with Tedd the night before, and she didn't want Ellen putting bad ideas in her head and starting the whole process all over again.

"So what are we doing here, anyway?" Nanase asked into the silence, looking at their surroundings and seeing that Grace had led them into the cool metal bleachers outside of the school, overlooking the football field.

"I told Alex I'd come watch him practice after school today!" Grace said excitedly. "He said it helps to understand all the rules in foots ball if you watch it in person!"

"Wait, you're still talking to him after that whole freak-out?" Ellen asked in surprise.

"Of course!" Grace answered. "Tedd said it was great that I was making friends!"

"…points to Tedd for not getting jealous," Nanase murmured under her breath to Ellen, who got a snicker out of it.

Grace paid neither response much attention, though. Her eyes were already scanning the football field, taking in all the sights Alex had told her about, from the big block numbers on the grass to the towering goal posts behind each endzone. And huddled over on the field itself in two lines of differently-colored shirts was the Moperville South football team, currently engaged in a scrimmage.

"There he is, right there! He said he wears a shirt with a big number twenty-eight on it!" Grace squealed. "HI ALEX!"

The only sound she could hear back was a stylized grunting from the boy standing beside Alex. A second later, lots of things happened all at once and very fast. The strangely-shaped ball was suddenly fired out from somewhere within the men lined up and landed in the boy's hands, and almost instantaneously afterward the two lines crashed into each other, shoving and grunting, while the boy who caught the ball handed it to Alex. With surprising speed considering how much gear seemed to be weighing him down, he charged forward through a hole in the two lines, and had run past several of the large numbers before a pair of boys in the other shirt colors caught up to him and tackled him to the ground.

Grace heard Ellen distantly mumble something about an impressive run, but she was far too overrun with concern suddenly to pay it any attention. Was that how the game always was? It looked so…dangerous and violent. Half of her was afraid he wasn't going to get up again.

But then the two other boys let go of Alex and helped him jump right back to his feet, jovially patting each other on the back and none of them apparently any worse for the wear, and a second later the beefy balding man at the other end of the field blew his whistle and Alex came jogging toward the bleachers.

"Hey, Grace, you made it!" Alex said with a smile as he reached her and took off his helmet, and Grace again couldn't help admiring his handsome facial features, but it was okay to do that because she wasn't flirting, Tedd said so.

"Are you okay, Alex?" Grace said worriedly. "That looked like it hurt!"

"Ah, I'm fine, that's what all these pads and stuff are for," he assured her, gesturing at the large helmet and shoulder pads. He smiled at her, and then at the other two girls. "Friends of yours?"

"Oh, yeah, this is Ellen and Nanase!" Grace hurriedly introduced them. "We're great friends!"

"Cool," Alex said with a nod at the other two girls, who smiled back but didn't say anything. "So, Grace, you and your friends wanna come to a movie?"

"Sure, I love movies!" she responded eagerly and rounded on the other two girls. "You guys wanna come?"

"Sorry, parents don't let me do anything fun until homework's done…" Nanase griped.

"You go ahead," Ellen insisted, "I'm gonna help Nanase."

Alex shrugged and smiled at Grace. "Guess it's just us, then."

Grace was undaunted. "That's okay, we can talk and stuff and get to know each other!" she offered, because that was normal when you made new friends and definitely not flirting.

"Heh, sounds good," Alex said, offering his arm. "Shall we?"

"Sure!" Grace said, running forward to take his arm, which was totally okay, she told herself, because she was definitely not flirting. "Bye Nanase, bye Ellen!"

In a flash she was gone, leaving Ellen and Nanase to give each other identical odd looks.

"…Is it just me, or was she acting like a total smitten kitten?" Ellen voiced the thought first.

"If she had her tail right now it'd be wagging like a puppy's," Nanase agreed. "Something's not right here…"

"…it's probably nothing. You know how Grace is sometimes. Besides, she'd never seriously CHEAT on TEDD. Right?"

"…Yeah…" Nanase slowly agreed, "you're probably right…"

But as logical as it sounded, neither girl seemed completely satisfied with the answer. Somehow they knew it just couldn't be that simple…

* * *

Comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated, as always.


	5. Nightmares & Dreamscapes

**Basic Instinct**

By CidGregor

* * *

_Chapter Five: Nightmares & Dreamscapes

* * *

_

"_Oh, Teeeeedd…"_

_Tedd turned toward her voice, somewhere off in the distance, in the bright, endless white that he seemed to be standing in. He squinted through the glare, trying to see her, glimpse her, find her…_

"_Grace?.! Grace where are you?.!"_

"_Over here, silly!" she giggled._

_Tedd whirled toward it, and suddenly there she was, standing near him in empty white space, smiling her soft smile, slowly shrinking as the distance between them seemed to grow. _

"_Grace!" Tedd called to her, reaching out to her, but he could hardly move. His legs didn't seem to want to work properly, like he was moving in slow motion. She was floating slowly but surely away from him, and behind her, the open arms of another figure were waiting, a tall, faceless figure, shirtless and muscular, his strong arms closing firmly around Grace's body._

_Tedd's heart froze. "Grace…?"_

_She giggled, as though his pain meant nothing to her. "Bye Tedd!"_

"_GRACE!"_

_But she was floating away further still, turning her back on him, wrapped up in the figure's arms as they slowly faded away together._

"_NOOOO! GRAAACE!" Tedd shouted, but it did no good. He fell to his knees, shivering as the bright white suddenly faded, and any warmth he had with it. Now there was just pitch black, a dark endless abyss surrounding him, eating at him until he was trembling and miserable._

"_She's gone…Grace is gone…just like her…just like mom…they left me…they all left me…"_

_And then suddenly he was falling, falling into the blackness, blind and terrified, and there was nothing, nothing that could save him from being swallowed up…_

"_No…nooooooo……!"_

"NO!" Tedd cried out, jerking out from under the blanket, sweating and shaking and breathing in fast, harsh gasps as he looked wildly around. The blackness was gone, the figures were gone, 

and in their place was bookcases, hallways, a television and a coffee table, and the couch underneath his body…his living room.

_A dream…just a dream…_

His breaths calmed and slowed at that realization, squinting his eyes through the dark at the VCR clock and saw it was getting close to eleven o'clock at night. He yawned briefly as his brain woke up and tried to remember why he'd fallen asleep on the couch, and froze mid-yawn as he realized the answer.

Grace.

For the first time he could remember since she'd started doing it, Grace hadn't been home to lovingly tackle him to the ground and greet his return. Even once she'd started school, somehow she always managed to beat him home and be there to welcome him. Not that he'd been immensely worried, at first; perhaps Ellen had simply been running late getting them on the road, or perhaps Grace had missed the ride and had to take the bus. He'd been sure it was nothing, that she'd be home very soon. He'd even had the amusing idea to turn the tables and wait by the door to pounce on _her_ upon her return.

But hours passed, and she did not come home. He tried to distract himself in his lab, but by six that evening he'd begun to be too worried even for that. Finally he'd made himself call Ellen to see if she knew anything, but that call had only made him worry more. She said in no uncertain terms that Grace had gone out to a movie after school with the very same guy, this… 'Alex' person that she'd accidentally flirted with, and the small, fearful voice he'd pushed down a mere twenty-four hours ago was rising up again and he was no longer sure that it had really been an accident. Which was of course crazy, the stronger, confident voice countered, Grace would never intentionally go flirting like that, they loved each other, she just didn't DO that kind of thing, he was sure of it.

But here he was, at almost eleven at night, falling asleep waiting for her to come home, and if the silence in the house and the fact that he was alone on the couch was any indication, she hadn't yet returned. At this hour she was usually…well…usually she was snuggling with him until his dad insisted they went to separate rooms and they obliged until he went to bed and one of them would sneak over to the other's room and they'd snuggle some more until they fell asleep. Since that clearly wasn't happening, though, she couldn't have been home…

But then where was she?

As if in answer to his question, he suddenly saw headlights shining through the window and a car pulling into his driveway. The lights went off once the car stopped, and distant voices could be heard chattering as they approached the front door. The moment he heard a key in the lock he knew it HAD to have been Grace, but nevertheless he suddenly dropped back down to the couch, pretending to be asleep, but listening hard.

"Thank you SO much for today, Alex," he heard her voice. "I had the BEST time!"

"Same here," an unfamiliar male voice responded. "Glad you enjoyed the movies. I had a feeling you'd like Harry Potter."

"Oh, I LOVED them! My friend Ellen showed me the books and they're great! I really didn't mean to impose but after seeing the movie of the third one I just HAD to come over and watch the first two!"

The male voice, Alex, chuckled. "Hey, I didn't mind at all, it was great having you over. Usually it's just a bunch of my big sweaty football buddies playing sports games all day. Nice to have a change of pace."

"Hehehe…" Grace giggled. "Well I'm glad you had fun too. Hey, you know what? We should hang out again sometime! I've got some great video games I can bring over!"

"Definitely. Same time tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure, that sounds great!"

Tedd felt an unpleasant jolt in the pit of his stomach at that, and opened one eye a sliver to peek over at the door. Grace was standing just inside the doorway, leaning in to give a tight hug to the boy standing beside her, who Tedd assumed was Alex. Tedd couldn't see him terribly well – all he could see was the top of his head as he looked down at Grace, and his arms as they wrapped around her to return the hug – but he definitely looked tall, fit, and handsome, and that was all Tedd's mind needed to recall his dream with an unsettling level of clarity.

"See you tomorrow, then," the boy said as he released her.

"Okay! Bye, Alex!" Grace said, waving goodbye cheerfully as he returned to his car and she shut the door behind him. Quickly Tedd closed his eyes again as Grace turned toward the living room, and stopped short at the sight of him.

"Tedd?"

Tedd battled with himself mentally for a moment, then made a small show of 'waking up,' yawning as he blinked up tiredly at her. "Oh, Grace, you're home…I was getting worried…"

A realization seemed to wash over Grace, and her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my gosh, I totally forgot to call and tell you where I was! Oh Tedd, you must've been worried sick!" In an instant she'd swopped down on him and hugged him tightly, kissing his cheeks apologetically.

Tedd reddened a bit at her close proximity, her body feeling a bit warmer against his than usual as he returned the hug. "H-hey, hey, it's okay, Grace, don't worry about it. As long as you're okay, I don't mind…"

"Are you sure…? I meant to call, I really did, but we got to talking about the movie and then you're s'posed ta have your phones off in the theaters and I just got really into it and then we went over to his house to watch more movies and I totally forgot…"

"Really, it's fine, Grace. I know you didn't mean to forget, and the important thing is that I know you're okay." Tedd paused for a moment as he touched her cheek. "You ARE okay, right? You feel really flushed."

"I'm fine, I promise," she assured him, pecking his cheek as she stood back up. "I better get ready for bed…"

"Okay…night, Grace."

Grace smiled her sweet little smile and scurried off to her room, leaving Tedd only slightly reassured as he headed for his own room. Okay, so he'd been blowing it a bit out of proportion in his head; she hadn't ditched him, she was just hanging out with her new friend and the circumstances had led her to forget to call him. It was an accident, it happened. No harm done. But still…this new friend of hers had been so interesting, he'd made her forget all about Tedd or how it might make him worry if she didn't tell him anything. Calling home had been the last thing on her mind. TEDD had been the last thing on her mind. And that did not make him feel terribly confident in himself.

Tedd sighed heavily as he laid down in his own bed, wondering why he was letting this get to him so much. He knew she loved him, he _knew _it. That couldn't have changed. Was he just jealous? Was he jealous that she was spending time with other, better-looking guys? Maybe, he admitted, but he never had any problem with her hanging out with Justin and Elliot. Then again Justin was gay, and Elliot had Sarah, and they were good friends besides. They just weren't going to go eloping or something silly like that. This Alex guy, though, was someone Tedd didn't know, had never met…and that worried him. Grace was learning a lot, but she was still so naïve…she wouldn't be able to read Alex's intentions, good or bad…and either way, if he was interested in her, there was no outcome that would bode well for Tedd. There was no way he could compete with a guy like that…

A small flutter of feet told him someone else was in the room, and second later he felt Grace crawling into bed next to him, arms drawing tenderly around him. He turned toward her, though he couldn't see her in the dark, and returned the embrace, relaxing a bit as he felt her body heat against his, still feeling a little warmer than usual.

"I'm really sorry, Tedd…" he heard her whisper.

Tedd squeezed his arms tighter around her, his dream hovering through his mind again, haunting him. Losing Grace was something he couldn't imagine surviving…he couldn't let that happen…

"…Tedd…?"

"I love you, Grace…you know that, right…?"

"Of course I do, Tedd…I love you too…"

"And you…..you're not gonna go away, right…?"

"What…? No, of course I won't go away, Tedd…why would you think that…?"

Tedd didn't answer, just holding her tighter in response.

"…Tedd…? What's wrong…?"

"It's nothing. Just bad dreams…"

Grace was silent for a moment, and Tedd almost thought she'd fallen asleep until he felt her lips press to his for a brief, tender moment.

"Dreams are just dreams…they're not real," she whispered almost solemnly. "I'm not going anywhere, Tedd. I promise…"

It was all Tedd could do to simply nod, kiss her back, and drift to sleep in her arms.

* * *

_They stumbled through the front door, backpacks dropping to the ground haphazardly in their haste to throw them off. At her own insistence they found their way to her room, lips locked in a intense, feverish kiss, the very idea of pulling away from each other impossible. She felt him pressing her against the wall as he kissed her, and somehow even that simple motion was driving her absolutely wild. Then she felt his lips against her neck and his hands slipping under her shirt to caress her back, and any resistance she might have wanted to hold onto was gone._

_She flung him down to the bed and pounced on top of him, his glasses flying from his face as she landed and kissed him furiously all over his face while he kissed at her neck again and she felt his chest underneath his shirt. They rolled around over and over again, neither seeming to stay on top for more than a handful of breaths as their hands got more daring and brushed against each other's butts, lightly at first until they realized they both enjoyed it and then let them feel around much more shamelessly._

"_Tedd…oh, Tedd…"_

"_Grace…"_

_Shirts vanished; she was touching and kissing his bare chest and even daring to finger his belt, and he was kissing the soft skin of her stomach up to the curves of her chest that hid behind a lacey bra that she was sure wouldn't be there much longer. Pants vanished, and his hands brushing against her rear suddenly felt incredibly intimate, and she knew she was ready to burst with desire. _

_She darted up to kiss him again, fingers running luxuriously through his long, violet-toned hair…except it was suddenly longer than usual, she realized, and when she pulled back from the kiss and looked at it, it was no longer purple but blond and wavy. She felt his chest and it had filled out, grown more muscular and firm. Then she glanced at his face and it wasn't Tedd's face anymore. It was Alex's._

_And she didn't care. _

_The kiss resumed with all the fervent intensity as before, her body almost white hot as they pressed together and the last barrier of clothing between them began to vanish…_

"_Ohhh, Alex…!_"

With a massive jolt of shock Grace jerked upright in bad, sweating and shaking and gasping for breath, and the instant she noticed Tedd beside her she nearly screamed and tumbled out of bed, the floor like ice against her skin, which felt insanely hot to the touch. She hugged herself tightly and tried desperately to catch her breath, eyes huge and frightened.

_Again…I dreamed it again_…

But no. That wasn't accurate. She'd dreamed something far worse this time. She'd dreamed about…about…

She squeezed her eyes shut tight, shaking her head furiously. She didn't want to think about it, told herself not to, but each time it kept creeping right back into her mind almost instantaneously, unsettling and even outright tormenting her, made far worse by knowing that her own brain had created them…the first dream had merely shaken her, had been only a mildly dirty fantasy somewhere in her head…but this one was downright horrifying…this couldn't have been what she really wanted…could it…?

And even if she hadn't been terrified out of the idea of sleeping any more that night because of the dream, the mere hesitation she felt when answering that question would keep her wide awake for hours to come.

* * *

Comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated, as always.


	6. Confessions of a Teenage Squirrel Girl

**Basic Instinct**

by CidGregor

* * *

_Chapter Six: Confessions of a Teenage Squirrel-Girl

* * *

_

"_I'm on the HIIIIIIIIIGHWAY to HELL! HIIIIIIGHWAY TO HELL!_"

_**SCREEEEECH!**_

_**HONK-HONK!**_

"HEY! WHATCH WHERE THE HELL YOU'RE GOING, JACKASS!" Ellen shouted out her window. "Damn crazy drivers ruining' my groove…"

Ellen wound down her radio a bit anyway, though; rocking out too hard to AC/DC probably wasn't the best thing to multitask alongside driving.

She pulled up in front of Tedd's house a moment later, bobbing her head in time with the music, and was only mildly surprised that Grace wasn't already waiting for her outside. Her eagerness for school usually had her bouncing on the corner in anticipation. But sure enough Grace emerged from the front door a moment later, though Ellen was far too busy grooving to notice her slow, weary movement and subdued attitude, and stepped on the gas as soon as she was in the car.

"Hey Grace!" she announced casually, singing along to her radio. "_I'm on the hiiiiighway to heeeell…hiiiiighway to heeeell…!_"

"Could you turn it down, Ellen…? I don't feel very good…"

"Huh? But I love this song!"

"Please…?"

Ellen looked over at her, finally seeming to notice her demeanor, and wound the radio down to almost silent. "Jeez, Grace, are you okay?"

Grace shook her head slightly. "I didn't sleep very well…"

"Ohh," Ellen nodded. "Yeah, lack of sleep probably doesn't mix well with loud music, huh?"

Grace simply shook her head again, rubbing her forehead.

"Well…that sucks…" Ellen observed, and was silent for a moment, a slow grin dawning on her face. "Just insomnia, or…did something keep you awake?"

Grace was silent.

Ellen grinned a bit wider. "Something interesting happen last night…? With Tedd, maybe…?"

Grace stiffened slightly, but shook her head. "No…weird dreams."

"…Oh." Ellen's grin faltered for a moment, but reformed quickly. "Sexy dreams?"

This time Grace blushed instantly, and Ellen snickered, sensing victory. "I knew it!"

"Ellen, please…"

"Soooo, what happened in these dreams?" she probed, adding a suggestive wink.

Grace reddened further, shrinking down uncomfortably in her seat. "Ellen…"

"C'mon, you can't tell me that and then hold out on me! Was it all romantic-like, or--"

"No, Ellen, please--"

"Oooh, so was it a walk on the _wild _side? Rawr! Didn't know you had it in--"

"Ellen, STOP IT!"

Ellen froze, blinking, her teasing face replaced by surprise at Grace's angry, red-faced expression. _That was…strange... _she thought. Grace never shouted. OR got angry. The only time she'd ever seen Grace do either one was when she fought Damien, and the realization left Ellen hovering somewhere between annoyed and worried; clearly Grace was bothered by something, but Ellen didn't appreciate being yelled at by someone as peaceful as Grace over something that was no big deal.

"…It was just a joke, Grace…"

"Well it's not very funny!"

"Gee, I'm sorry for being myself! What, I'm not allowed to make jokes?"

"No! I told you, it's not funny, it's serious!"

"Fine, then," Ellen growled and gave her a gruff frown. "S'cuse me for trying to lighten your mood."

"Well it doesn't work! This is all your fault in the first place!"

"MY fault?.!" Ellen blurted. "How is it MY fault you're having sex dreams about Tedd?.!"

Grace's anger, however, seemed to have dried up as quickly as it came, and she withdrew into herself again, curling up in her seat.

Ellen, however, was far from letting it go. "Well? Go on, how the hell is it my fault?.!"

It was clearly a lost cause, though. Grace had clammed up completely, not even looking at her.

Ellen growled in frustration, practically slamming the gearshift into 'park' as she slid into an open space in the school parking lot. "Fine, forget it…sorry I opened my damn mouth…" she muttered, and was halfway out of the car before she heard it.

"It wasn't Tedd…"

Ellen paused, blinking, and glanced back at her. "Say what?"

Grace hugged herself, and climbed out of the car. "…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you…I'll explain at lunch…"

"Um…okay, but--"

"Can you do me a favor first?" Grace cut in.

"…What kind of favor?"

Grace looked at her with almost pleading eyes. "Promise me you'll stay close today…?"

Ellen blinked, a bit confused. "…I always stay close, don't I?"

"No, I mean…don't let me…run off anywhere…especially not with Alex…"

Ellen jolted, not liking where this was going at all. "Alex? Why?" she pressed, tensing. "Did he do something to you?"

"No, no, it's nothing he did, just…I don't know…something's wrong with me…I don't…I don't trust myself anymore…"

Ellen tensed further. "…Grace, you're scaring me."

"Promise me you won't let me out of your sight."

"…Grace--"

"Promise!"

Ellen paused for a moment, considering, and nodded. "Okay. I promise."

"Thank you," she whispered, and leaned against Ellen, who wrapped a protective arm around the girl.

"Hey, that's what your girlfriends are for…" Ellen said with an air of casualness. But internally, her mind was racing at the speed of light, trying to interpret Grace's clues. What did she mean when she said it wasn't Tedd? And why did she want to avoid Alex? And what did it have to do with the dreams she was--

Ellen's brain abruptly ground to a halt, one answer shining brightly at the forefront of her thoughts.

_No way…

* * *

_

Ellen was outright bursting with morbid curiosity all throughout their first two classes, and it was all she could do to clamp that curiosity down tight. Mr. Alephnull was nice enough, but he wasn't about to allow them to ignore lecture, and Mr. Raven would no sooner allow talking in his class than adopt kittens, so Ellen was forced to put a lid on it until they were released for lunch. Ellen made sure to stand up to her promise, however, sitting behind her in class so she was never out of sight, keeping a firm and reassuring grip on Grace's hand through the halls and even accompanying her to the bathroom, something that the 'Elliot' side of her still didn't quite fully grasp why girls did.

But thankfully the lunch period came, and Ellen sat down over mystery meat and cold potatoes to listen to what she had to say.

"Okay, so…what's all this about, Grace…?" Ellen probed gently.

"Well…" Grace began, "I--"

"Hey guys," a voice suddenly interrupted, causing Grace to jolt in surprise; Nanase was sitting down at the table with them, unwrapping her home-made lunch, with Justin right behind her.

"Hey, Ellen. Hi Grace," Justin greeted them, smiling kindly, which for some reason made Grace blush horribly. "I can't stay, I'm giving Alephnull a hand grading papers. Just grabbing something to go."

"Oh, alright then, later Justin," Nanase said, waving at him as he hurried off, and looked back at the table, giving Grace a curious glance. "What're you all blushy about?"

"Um, Nanase, we're kind of in the middle of something here," Ellen stopped her.

Nanase paused with a sandwich halfway to her mouth, looking back and forth at the unusual expressions on the other girls' faces. "….what's going on?"

Ellen hesitated, glancing at Grace. "It's your call…"

Grace nodded slowly. "It's okay…you guys are my best friends here…and it's best that Justin's not here…"

Nanase and Ellen both frowned. "What does Justin have to do with it?" the latter asked.

"With _what_?" Nanase added. "What's the problem?"

Grace heaved a heavy sigh, looking at Ellen. "You remember at the beginning of the week when you asked me about whether me and Tedd were…doing stuff?"

Ellen nodded slowly. "Yeah…?"

Nanase rolled her eyes. "Is their sex life, like, ALL you care about these days?"

"Shh!" Ellen shushed her. "Go on, Grace."

Grace reddened a bit. "Well…that night…I had this…dream. About me and Tedd…"

Ellen held her tongue this time, but to Nanase it was fresh news. "You had a sex dream about Tedd?" she said in a surprised whisper.

"There wasn't sex," she corrected quickly. "…but it was…going that way. I-I woke up before we got…y'know…naked…"

"…Well that's not so bad," Ellen assured her. "You can't control what you dream about, and it's pretty natural for someone our age…"

"It was still really awkward," Grace countered.

"What was awkward about it? He's your boyfriend!"

Nanase cleared her throat sharply at that. "Elle."

Ellen whirled toward her. "What? What's the problem?"

"I think you of all people should be a _little_ more sensitive about _awkward dream sex_," she said very pointedly.

Ellen tensed slightly at the reminder, catching her point. "…Oh. Right…" Ellen cleared her own throat, a rare blush hitting her. "Sorry, Grace…"

Grace barely registered the awkward moment, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I let it go after a couple days…almost forgot all about it after I met Alex…but I never said anything about the dream to Tedd. I didn't think I'd have to, I thought it was a one-time thing. But…then last night…"

Ellen nodded slowly. "It happened again?"

Grace hesitated. "Well…yes and no."

Nanase frowned. "What does that mean?"

Grace reddened, looking more upset now. "It started out almost exactly like the first dream, but…..but then…"

This was it, Ellen thought to herself. This was what she'd suspected. "In the car…you said 'it wasn't Tedd,' didn't you…"

Grace nodded sadly. "Halfway through, he…he suddenly…turned into…"

"Alex," Ellen guessed, the pieces clicking in her head. "That's why you didn't want to be around him today."

Grace gave another sad nod. "That's not even the worst of it…"

Now it was Nanase's turn to be a step ahead, eyes widening in mild surprise. "You didn't…_like _it, did you…?"

Grace hung her head. "…the dream me did."

Both Ellen and Nanase exchanged a stunned look, both thinking along the same lines. This was incredibly unlike Grace, to have feelings like this. What could possibly make her dream about the admittedly somewhat scrawny love of her life turning into a handsome football-playing stranger?

Well. Thinking about it THAT way, Ellen at least could think of one reason.

"I don't know why…" Grace finished, meanwhile. "In the dream I didn't care at all that anything had changed…I just kept going…we were almost naked by the time I woke up…and as soon as I did I just freaked out….I couldn't sleep anymore last night…" At last she fell silent, hugging herself, eyes moist.

"Grace, listen," Ellen started. "I know it sounds kinda bad…"

"KINDA bad?" Nanase countered, but let it go after another shush from Ellen.

"…but it's still a natural thing," she finished. "Sometimes your body wants things that your brain doesn't. People get urges like that now and then, it doesn't mean your brain seriously wants it."

"But my brain was the one dreaming all that up…" Grace responded.

"Not your WHOLE brain, just the part that's basic instinct. Besides, you still can't actually CONTROL your dreams, they don't necessarily mean anything," Ellen assured her.

Grace seemed to nod, visibly trying hard to be optimistic. "I….I want to believe you're right, but still, it…it felt so…"

"I know," Ellen responded, hugging her with one arm. "Believe me…I know."

"You do?"

Ellen nodded. "In my whole second life dreams…the other me….she had sex with her boyfriend once…and in my head, it felt like it was ME doing it…"

Grace flushed and looked at Nanase, surprised that she barely reacted. "…You knew that happened?"

"Yeah, she told me…" she admitted with a calm nod.

"And you weren't mad…?" Grace asked.

Nanase shook her head. "They're just dreams, Grace. This Ellen sitting right here…she isn't the one who did that stuff…"

"Right," Ellen agreed. "No matter how real it felt, it wasn't really me…just like it wasn't really you doing those things in your dream. You don't need to feel guilty about it."

"The important thing is that you still love Tedd, right?" Nanase added.

"Of course I do…" Grace said. "…D'you think…I should tell him…?"

"As long as it's just dreams, no," Ellen insisted. "It'd just get him upset."

Grace nodded slowly. "So…if it's natural to dream about that stuff, what about if you feel attracted to other people when you're awake?"

Nanase frowned slightly. "What, like thinking they're cute?"

Grace shook her head. "No, it's stronger than that…since the week started….I don't know, every boy I see I'm suddenly noticing them….especially Justin and Elliot, and….Alex…"

Nanase blinked in surprise. "…is that why you were glad Justin left? And blushing?"

Grace reddened yet again and nodded.

"Um…how 'attractive' are we talking, here?" Ellen asked warily.

Grace winced at the thought. "…like it's hard to remember how to talk around them…staring at them…wanting to be close to them…"

"Is this about the flirting with Alex thing?" Ellen pressed.

"…Tedd said it wasn't flirting, to do things like that and feel that way, but…after last night I'm not sure anymore…"

Ellen thought for a moment. "Y'know, that sounds kinda like Archie. Part-Uryuoms like to be physically close with friends, maybe that's what it is?"

"But it's not just friends, it's EVERYBODY…at least…all the boys…"

Nanase and Ellen exchanged another look, both thinking along similar lines. This sounded a little more complicated than erotic dreams. There was a deeper problem here. Unfortunately, there was no more time to think about it, as the bell signaling the end of lunch rang just then.

_Hmm…Gym's soon…_ Ellen thought to herself. …_Justin's in that class with us…maybe I can see up close how Grace reacts… _

Yes, she thought, that sounded like a good place to start analyzing what was wrong with Grace.

If only she wasn't quite so worried about what she might find out…for her AND Tedd's sake…

* * *

Comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated, as always.


	7. Hot n' Bothered

**Basic Instinct**

by CidGregor

* * *

_Chapter Seven: Hot n' Bothered

* * *

_

It was fortunate – for her experiment at least, Ellen thought – that the current unit in gym class was something as active and physical as basketball. A lot of good-looking, muscular and sweaty guys were certainly going to be eye-catching. But where most girls would probably appreciate it as little more than eye candy, Grace on the other hand…

Well. She wasn't entirely sure how Grace was going to react, but considering what she knew of Grace's troubles, Ellen was sure it would be a significantly stronger reaction than most. She wasn't expecting anything blatant, of course, but for some reason she didn't want to dismiss the possibility. From the sound of Grace's dreams, this problem of hers was getting steadily worse, and if that kept up, it was only a matter of time before it grew beyond dirty dreams and she started thinking with the wrong brain, willingly or not. And that wasn't good for anyone.

Ellen glanced beside her at the girl in question. Grace was sitting on the locker room bench in her gym clothes, apparently as lost in thought as Ellen had been. It was obvious this was deeply troubling her. Anyone who spent two seconds in their company knew that Grace and Tedd were custom-made for each other and that she loved him with every ounce of her heart. For her to suddenly start feeling unfamiliar attractions to a handful of other guys had to be beyond upsetting. And if Tedd found out, it was going to make her feel ten times worse. Ellen had half a mind to call the experiment off and make up a reason for her not to be in class, but she knew Grace would refuse that idea point-blank; skipping school might as well be a capital crime to that girl. She was going to have to get through it either way, so the least Ellen could do was watch out for her and see first-hand how she acted around these 'other guys,' and keep her in check if things got out of control.

Ellen patted Grace on the shoulder. "C'mon, class is about to start."

Grace nodded silently and stood up beside her, stretching and visibly trying to keep calm and focused, though Ellen was not too sure it was working. But for better or worse they walked out of the girls' locker room and into the gym, where most of the class had already gathered. Ellen surveyed the group, divided rather evenly between boys and girls, and divided again between serious players and those just shooting around for fun, and quickly picked out Justin in the latter group.

"Stay here, I'll be right back," Ellen gestured to Grace, and jogged over to Justin, though keeping one eye on Grace the whole time.

"Hey, Ellen," Justin greeted her as she approached, stepping away from the action. "Sorry about lunch, the paper grading took longer than I--"

"Yeah yeah, whatever, shut up and listen for a second," Ellen muttered, pulling him close and speaking quietly near his ear. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Uhh…I guess so, what's up?"

"Can you play with the serious guys today?"

Justin gave her a quizzical look. "…why?"

"Just do it for me this one time, okay? I know you can. You don't even have to be very good, just…play seriously. Work up a sweat."

"…Are you suggesting I don't get enough exercise?"

"I'll explain later!" she hissed. "Just do this for me!"

"Alright, alright, jeez…" Justin said soothingly.

"Thank you," Ellen said with a nod and hurried back over to Grace. As Ellen had expected, the girl seemed to not even realize she'd been gone, her eyes locked instead on the developing game among the serious players that Justin was just joining. Muscles were flexing, clothes were clinging, and sweat was dripping, and it wasn't even five minutes in. It was a total testosterone-fest, and Grace was predictably captivated by it.

_Okay, so she likes eye candy, big deal, that's not all that weird_, Ellen thought to herself. _I need something more…_

She watched Grace closely, though discreetly, and after a few moments of observing her and the game, her eyes definitely seemed to be following Justin more than the other boys. Again, nothing too surprising, Ellen thought. Justin was an attractive guy, probably one of the most attractive of the group. Gay guys were notorious for that. There had to be something more that could help her narrow down the problem…

"Hey, Alex!"

Ellen's head jerked up, Grace's right behind her. Alex stood in the gym doorway, waving at a buddy of his that had greeted him. Ellen peeked sideways at Grace, and her captivation level seemed to have jumped again, smiling and blushing at the sight of her new friend. He looked a lot like Justin, actually, Ellen noticed. His hair was longer and his muscles were a little more defined, and he didn't have an earring, but otherwise they looked quite similar. Maybe Grace was developing a thing for blondes…

A second later, to both girls' surprise, Alex was walking into the gym and casually shedding his jersey, leaving only a sleeveless workout top. Apparently his buddy had invited him to join the game to even out the teams again after Justin had joined. Ellen observed Grace once more, and was definitely noticing a reaction. Her breathing was getting faster, her skin looked flushed, and when Ellen put a hand to her forehead it felt almost feverishly warm.

Grace, conversely, felt Ellen's hand like it was ice, and squeaked aloud, coming back into focus for the moment and looking at Ellen in surprise. "What, what?!"

"Holy crap…" Ellen marveled. "You're burning up."

"I am?" Grace echoed. "Is that bad?"

"It means your body temperature is jumping. And that only really happens when you have a fever, or when you're doing something really physical, or…when your heart rate goes up…um…some other way."

"What other way?"

"……" Ellen cleared her throat. "Don't worry about it, let's just get you back in the locker room, I think I've seen enough…"

"Hey, Grace, you're in this class too?"

Grace nearly jumped out of her skin at Alex's voice, and she whirled to face him, smiling nervously and blushing hard. "Hehe, y-yeah, guess so…hi, Alex…"

"Cool, cool," Alex said, giving her a broad, sincere smile. "And you're Ellen, right?" he added, smiling at Ellen in turn, who simply nodded, watching him suspiciously.

"I had a great time yesterday, Alex!" Grace announced.

"Heh, me too…"

Ellen was only half-listening to the conversation, though, her mind working to figure out what the deal with this Alex guy was. She just didn't know what to make of him, she thought to herself. He seemed like a perfectly nice person. But looks were often deceiving. It was entirely possible that whatever was affecting Grace was his doing. For all she knew he was some crazy alternate dimension warlock out to seduce a legion of fangirls!

…Okay, that was a little farfetched, Ellen admitted, but damnit, there was _something _strange going on here! And she needed to figure out what it was, fast. It was obvious Grace was getting worse from the happy puppy-dog look in her eyes as she smiled at Alex. It was like there was no one and nothing else in the world to her, like the rest of the world just didn't exist when she was in his presence. And that was definitely not right. That was the look she saved for Tedd.

"Are you gonna play, Alex?" Grace asked, snapping Ellen out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, just for a bit. It's my free period, so I've got some time," Alex told her.

"Wow, you know how to play basketball too?" she said, practically glowing.

Alex chuckled a bit. "Well, I'm not nearly as good at it as I am at football, but yeah, I know how to play."

"That's amazing…" Grace marveled. "I hope you win!"

"I'm gonna try," Alex assured, smiling at her one more time before waving at them both and hurrying to join the game.

While Grace was content to blush and wave back at him, though, Ellen completely ignored his departure and instead stared slack-jawed at Grace, her mind racing to comprehend the conversation that just took place. One thing was already clear to her: whatever was affecting Grace, it was worse than she'd first thought. It was like she became a whole different person around Alex, almost to the point of schizophrenia, and the two sides' knowledge of each other was foggy at best. The normal side of her that cared about Tedd seemed to completely disappear when Alex entered the room and be replaced with a total fan-girl who was two steps away from throwing herself at him and cared nothing for the feelings of her other half. And it was pretty obvious how unhealthy that was for her. Ellen needed regular Grace back, fast, which meant getting her away from Alex.

"C'mon, girl, I've seen plenty," Ellen urged, tugging Grace to her feet. "I'll tell the teacher you're running a fever. The way you're blushing I doubt anyone will argue…"

"Huh?" Grace murmured, her tone spacey. "But I wanna watch the game…"

"I know exactly what you wanna watch, and it ain't that game…" Ellen muttered back, hauling her toward the locker room once again.

* * *

"Hey Elliot?"

"No, Tedd, for the last time, there's no devious plot concocted by my sister and your cousin to ruin lesbians for you."

"…that's not even close to what I was going to ask."

"That's why it's funny."

"…but it wasn't funny."

"…yeah, I know."

Tedd rolled his eyes and stared back at his textbook, returning to taking notes. "Forget it."

Elliot raised a concerned eyebrow at his best friend. The two of them were sitting in the back of a rather lively classroom that was supposed to be a study period, but was instead used for free-time by the majority of the class to gossip, nap, or play card games. Tedd, however, was doing none of these things, choosing to actually study instead. Or at least, it was clear he was TRYING to study, but Elliot was positive something was distracting him. And he was equally positive as to what that something was.

"Come on, Tedd, I was just trying to get a smile out of you," Elliot said. "You've been pretty sour lately and it's starting to weird me out."

"I'm fine."

"Sure you are. That's why you've barely said a word today."

"Well I was GOING to before you made a stupid crack at me."

"I wasn't making a crack at you!"

"Yeah, well…shut up!"

Now it was Elliot's turn to roll his eyes. "That's real mature, Tedd. You gonna call me a doody head next?"

Tedd fell silent.

"Fine," Elliot said with a sigh, "be that way."

Elliot looked back at his own books, and there was silence between them for a long minute.

"…Sorry…" Tedd eventually muttered with a sigh. "I'm just really worked up…"

"I can tell. Seriously, Tedd, what's wrong?"

"It's Grace again…"

"I figured. She still distant?"

Tedd shrugged a bit. "I don't even know anymore. She's really changing."

"…And, what, that's…bad?" Elliot said skeptically.

"I don't…" he started, trailing off for a moment to gaze at him. "…Elliot, do you think I'm the jealous type?"

Elliot blinked in surprise, not expecting a sidetrack. "Uhh…I guess not…?"

"Seriously, think about it."

Elliot did so for a moment. "…Well…I don't know, actually. I guess there hasn't really been an occasion to base an opinion like that on."

"Yeah, well. Now there is."

"…You're jealous of someone?"

"…I think I might be."

Elliot thought about that for a moment, trying to connect it to Grace in his head. "Is this some new friend of Grace's or something?"

"Yeah. Alex. _Or something_," Tedd confirmed, sighing miserably. "And he's _perfect_."

"Perfect? Perfect how?"

"Pretty much every way you CAN be perfect. He's good-looking, he's in great shape, he's popular, he's a sports star…probably has a perfect little family, too…"

Elliot frowned slightly. "Okay, I know where you're going with this, Tedd, and I'm stopping you right here. There's no way Grace is gonna end up going for this Alex guy over you."

Tedd snorted in disbelief. "Easy for you to say when it's not your girlfriend."

"It should be easy for you, too. Tedd, remember who we're talking about for a second here. This is GRACE. She is NOT going to trade you in for some pretty boy."

"So I'm ugly now?"

"You know what I meant!" Elliot said with an eye-roll. "Grace is crazy about you. We've been over this. She's not going to dump you for some guy she just met."

"Well she's been acting like she will," Tedd muttered. "She doesn't talk to me as much as she used to, she's starting to hang out with him a lot now…last night it was almost midnight before she came home because she was out having so much fun with him…and then I thought I heard her say his name in her SLEEP, and when I woke up today she'd already gotten up without me and avoided me all morning, and--"

"Tedd, come on, stop it, you're making a big deal out of nothing," Elliot tried to calm him. "So she stays out late one night with a new friend, big deal."

"But it's not just some friend of hers, it's not like she's staying out with Ellen or you or someone, it's…"

Tedd trailed off again there, and Elliot frowned slightly in response, his earlier question making sense now. "…so you ARE jealous."

Tedd winced. "Is it really that bad?"

"Yes," Elliot said bluntly. "You just said it yourself, you wouldn't care if it was Ellen and I hanging out with her, but it DOES bother you that she's hanging out with Alex."

"Well can you blame me?.!" Tedd snapped defensively. "The guy's perfect! And what am I? Some unpopular, crazy pervert…"

Elliot laid firm hands on Tedd's shoulders. "You can think that way if you really want to, Tedd, but I know you know better. Use that big genius head of yours and think about it rationally. You don't seriously think Grace is going to leave you for some guy she barely knows, do you?"

Tedd paused for a moment.

"Well?"

"…no…I guess…" he said uncertainly, not really looking at him.

"So then why is it that when she makes a new friend that just so happens to be male and starts hanging out with him, the first thing that comes to your mind is that she's cheating on you? Do you not trust her?"

That got Tedd's attention. "Of course I do!" he insisted, meeting Elliot's eyes head-on in an almost challenging manner.

"Then you can stop being jealous. Even if Alex's the one interested in HER, she's not going to respond to it because she loves you, and you love her, and most importantly, you TRUST her. Right?"

It was a long moment that Tedd thought about that before he started to answer, but the ring of his phone cut him off just then. He grabbed it quickly, thankful for a break from the heavy conversation. "Hello?"

"_Tedd, it's Ellen. Need a favor._"

"…Yeah, sure. What do you need?"

"_Will you come over to Moperville South and pick up Grace after school? I really think she needs to see you._"

Tedd tensed slightly. "Why, what happened?"

"_Nothing, nothing, I just…I really think she could use some time alone with you right now._"

Tedd sighed slightly. "I would, but she was going to go hang out with Alex after school today--"

"_She changed her mind!_" Ellen snapped, cutting him off.

"Dah! Jeez, Ellen, what the hell?" Tedd demanded.

"_Will you just do what I say and come pick up your girlfriend? You can steal Elliot's car for one afternoon, tell him I owe him one._"

"Alright, alright, already, I'll do it, yeesh! You could ask a little nicer next time, y'know!"

"_I'm sorry, it's just important, okay? Get over here the second you get out._"

"Whatever you say, master…"

"_Thank you, bye._"

Tedd jerked the phone away from his ear as she slammed her end of the connection closed, and closed his own phone a moment later. "That was weird…"

"What happened?" Elliot asked.

"Ellen demanded I come over to South after school and pick up Grace. Said to borrow your car and she'll owe you one."

Elliot raised an eyebrow in response. "You're right, that IS weird."

"Yeah. Do you mind? She sounded pretty serious about it."

"Nah, go ahead," Elliot said, offering him the keys. "Just don't do anything stupid with it."

"Thanks," Tedd said, taking the keys. "I'll be careful."

"And don't forget what we talked about."

"Yeah, yeah, trust, love, all that good stuff…" he said halfheartedly.

"I'm serious, Tedd. It's nothing to worry about."

"…Yeah. You're probably right," Tedd said. "Thanks."

And as Tedd looked back at his books, trying to focus again, he repeated Elliot's words over and over to himself in his head. Told himself he was just being paranoid delusional, that Grace wasn't going to leave him because she'd fallen for Alex.

Because maybe, he thought, if he said it enough…he could convince himself it was true.

* * *

Comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated, as always.


	8. Flirting With Disaster

**Author's note****: **Bleh. What else is there to say? My fic writing has dried up for a long while now and is only just recently getting a little gas, however slightly. With any luck I will have more fic to offer soon, but for those future fics, perhaps it might be best to wait to post them until I'm quite a bit further along with them than just a chapter at a time. I make no promises though.

In the meantime, here's the rest of this fic (finally) to tide you over. This was actually finished quite some time ago, but somehow it slipped past my notice that I never finished posting it here. Those of you who saw this on the EGS forum won't find anything new except perhaps some spelling errors corrected or a sentence tweaked here and there, but for those of you who only know my FFN profile, I hope you enjoy the rest of this fic. One less story I've left unfinished, I suppose.

-Cid

**

* * *

****Basic Instinct**

by CidGregor

* * *

_Chapter Eight: Flirting with Disaster

* * *

_

"I'm telling you, she's gone completely off the deep end."

"She's got a crush. It happens. She'll get past it."

"This is SO not just a crush, she's going completely head over heels…"

"She is not, quit exaggerating."

"Aren't you supposed to be on MY side here?"

"I don't want to get involved in stuff that's not my business."

"But this could totally doom Tedd and Grace's relationship forever!"

"C'mon, Ellen, you're overreacting," Nanase almost snapped. "It can't be that bad."

"I'm telling you it is!" Ellen hissed in a harsh whisper. "And keep your voice down!" she added with a quick glance in Grace's direction.

Nanase lowered her voice, but rolled her eyes as well. "If you don't want her to overhear us talking about her behind her back, maybe we should, y'know, _stop_."

Ellen frowned, but fell silent for a moment, at least, conceding the point as she looked at Grace again. She was walking beside the other two girls through the usual crowd of students toward their biology class, and as had nearly become the norm for the last week, she was walking with her head down and her expression joyless. Ellen couldn't remember her smiling once this entire week. Until she came into the company of Alex, of course, and then she was smiling and giggling so much might as well have been wearing a shirt that named her his number one fan. That alone told Ellen this was bad and getting worse, why couldn't Nanase see it?

"Look, you know it can't be healthy for her and Tedd, you know how he is. Even if it really is nothing, Tedd will beat himself up over it and get all paranoid and stuff…"

"That's his problem, not Grace's," Nanase said back. "If Tedd's gonna get jealous because she happens to make a new friend that happens to be male, then _that's_ what's not healthy for them."

"…Well, yeah, okay, but-"

"But what?" Nanase stopped her. "You want to keep her from making any new friends that aren't girls?"

"Nnnhhh, no, but damnit, Nani, that's exactly the problem, this isn't just a 'friend!'" she hissed again. "She's crushing on him bad! You haven't seen it in action, you don't know…"

"Like I said, so what if she has a crush? People get crushes. You don't magically stop finding people attractive just because you're in a committed relationship. They're natural, they pass."

"Yeah, but what about when they _don't_ pass? What about when a crush turns into a seriously crazy attraction and you end up leaving the committed relationship because you're suddenly all into the new guy?"

"What about it?"

"…" Ellen blinked in surprise. "Huh?"

Nanase looked seriously back at her. "So what if she falls for someone else? Maybe that means her and Tedd aren't meant for each other. Maybe she's supposed to be with this Alex guy."

Ellen stared at her in near-horror. "There is no way you can seriously believe that. Two hours ago you were right there with me wondering what was _wrong_ with her for being attracted to him!"

"I'm just making a point. We're in _high school_, Ellen. Relationships come and go every single day. Do you know how rare it is for people to stay together for ANY significant length of time at this age? Tedd and Grace have known each other for a couple of _months_, that's not even close to enough time to say they're absolutely meant for each other. Maybe they're not even meant to be with _anyone_ right now, for all you know."

"…What are you saying?"

"I'm saying they're not magically going to stay together just because YOU think they should," Nanase said as the two of them turned into their next classroom. "If they're meant to be together, then this Alex thing will work itself out. If they're not, then nothing you do is gonna change it."

Still Ellen stared at her as they sat side by side in their seats. "Okay, I get your point, but still, do you actually believe they're NOT meant for each other? Honestly?"

"…Honestly, no," Nanase admitted. "If I had to pick one high school couple I most believed would stay together, it'd be them."

"And you _have_ to admit the way Grace is acting around Alex is WAY weirder than just a silly little crush that'll eventually go away."

Nanase couldn't help but nod. "Yes, it's definitely weirder. But Grace isn't normal to begin with. She's had like NO prior experience with emotions and environments like this. You can't expect her to react to it all the same way anyone else would. Maybe she's just doing a really bad job of handling it."

"Oh come on, I don't care what circumstances you grew up in, you don't start having dirty dreams about people days after meeting them."

"You can't control what you dream about! You said so yourself!"

"…Yeah, well, you still don't turn into an oozing pile of goo at every cute guy you see!"

"Okay, NOW you're exaggerating."

"I am SO not! Seriously, you haven't seen her, it's nauseating!"

"Would you stop talking about her like that? She's right there-…hey, where'd she go?"

Ellen froze for a split second, then whirled around to look at Grace's seat, and to her surprise, it was empty.

"Grace…?"

_**BRRRRIIIIIIIIING!

* * *

**_

Somewhere well down the hall from her classroom, Grace was walking alone, legs moving on autopilot and unaware that she'd passed her classroom and left Ellen and Nanase behind, she was so inwardly focused. The general din of the student body around her was background noise at best, and not even the occasional arm or shoulder bumping or brushing against her was bringing her back to the outside world. She was far more concerned with her own problems.

Ellen's 'experiment' in gym class, however much it had been based in good intentions, didn't make things any better, or bring her any closer to understanding what was happening to her. The same thing that had been happening simply happened again, and stronger than ever. The only thing she'd accomplished was to embarrass herself in front of Ellen and Justin now, too.

_Why_ couldn't she control this? Where were these horrible urges coming from? Why did they make her stare at every boy she saw? She loved _Tedd_, she repeated to herself over and over. She loved _Tedd_, she was attracted to _Tedd_, she wanted to be with _Tedd_. She couldn't be attracted to Justin or Elliot or Alex…she just couldn't be. They were friends. It was supposed to stay that way. And yet there it was, that ugly voice she hated, worming its way into her mind and reminding her that yes, she was attracted to those boys, at least physically, and it was not something she could just brush aside and ignore.

The really strange thing, although it thankfully gave Grace a much-needed emotional boost, was that Tedd wasn't excluded from the list. As weird as it was to feel these strange, unsettling attractions for other boys, it wasn't overwriting her feelings for Tedd. On the contrary, she found Tedd more attractive than ever, in the same physical sense that she was finding the other boys attractive. Everything she felt for him before, she still felt now, except now every time she saw him, or pictured him in her mind, her heart rate seemed to jump and her skin flushed and she became unusually interested in the idea of seeing him without a shirt on. Or pants. Or _anything_. That in itself was a strange thing for her to come to terms with, and Tedd was her boyfriend. When she started thinking that about Justin and Elliot, and most of all Alex, it was way beyond unsettling…

_**BRRRRIIIIIIIIING!**_

The sound finally jerked Grace's head up and out of her thoughts, and as she looked wildly around, she realized that the halls had nearly emptied, and she was alone, a long, long way from where she was supposed to be.

In other words, she was late.

"Ohh, darn it!" she squeaked, dashing back the way she'd come.

* * *

"That's so weird, she was right here…" Nanase marveled, staring at Grace's empty seat.

Ellen growled in frustration. "I don't believe it, she was right next to us, how did-…oh, damnit, she was all lost in her head, she must've walked right past the classroom!"

"Quiet down back there, Miss Dunkel," their biology teacher announced, and as Ellen looked up, she saw him closing and locking the door behind him as he did every class; his idea of a good way to cut down on tardiness was apparently to not let anyone in late and get them in all kinds of trouble for an unexcused absence as punishment.

"Wait, Mister Rice, don't lock up yet, Grace accidentally went past-"

"You know the rules, Miss Dunkel, I don't allow tardiness in my class!" Mr. Rice said in a disturbingly cheery voice. "Now, back to education!"

Ellen jumped up halfway. "But if I can just-!"

"Sit down, please, Miss Dunkel, we're starting!"

"But-!"

"_Will you shut up and sit down?_" Nanase hissed.

Ellen stood rigidly in place for another couple of seconds, but eventually forced herself to sit down, gritting her teeth. "Damnit…"

"Now then, everyone," Mr. Rice announced, "open your books to chapter six, section five, we will be continuing our study on small mammals, and today we move on to reproductive habits…"

"What's the big deal?" Nanase whispered as the teacher began to lecture.

"I promised I'd stay close to her today…and now she stuck outside by herself…who knows what she's going to get into out there…"

"She can't seriously get into that much trouble by herself, can she?"

"…I hope not…"

* * *

"Please don't lock it please don't lock it please don't lock it!" Grace chanted in a mild panic, dashing as fast as she could back to her biology class. Somewhere in the back of her mind she already knew it was a futile effort, she was already a good five minutes late, but nevertheless she had to try…

Unfortunately the back of her mind turned out to be right. As she reached the classroom and grabbed for the knob, it didn't budge an inch, and when she looked through the little window in the door to plead for Mister Rice's attention, he gave her little more than half a glance before completely ignoring her.

"Ooohhh, no!" Grace whined quietly, frustrated. For the first time ever, she was late…and it had cost her a whole unexcused absence. Mister Verres wasn't going to be happy…how was she going to explain this? She'd forgotten to go to class because she was worrying too hard about a few hot boys? Even in her head the conversation was mortifying.

"Now what am I supposed to do…?" Grace mumbled, leaning against the wall. She was missing a whole lesson's worth of material, how was she going to make it up? She could read the next chapter they were going to read in class anyway, she supposed, but she wasn't at all sure she'd be able to follow the material on her own; she had so many questions as it was, even WITH the teacher to help explain things…

"Grace?"

Grace darted her head back up to look at the source of the voice, catching the familiar sight of Alex's smiling face. For the briefest of moments the rational part of her mind started to tense up and freak out, but in a matter of moments, both it and all other thoughts and worries about class and lessons and unexcused absences were wiped blissfully from her mind and she broke out into a wide, goofy smile. "Alex! Hi!"

Sure enough, Alex was standing just a few feet from her, smiling his casual, friendly smile that made her blush from head to toe. "Get locked out of Mister Rice's class, huh?"

"Hm…?" she murmured, her dreamy mind at first unaware of what he could possibly be talking about, and only after a long moment of brain-addled thought did his words make sense. "Oh, yeah, I, uh…I guess I did."

"Ouch," Alex observed. "You're not going to get in too much trouble with your family, are you?"

"Oh, no, no, don't worry about that, it's no big deal, I'll live," she quickly insisted, smiling wide and eager to get away from such a silly, meaningless subject. "What are you doing here, Alex?"

"Oh, just wandering, trying to pass the time."

"Don't you have class?"

"Yeah, but…heh, I got locked out too," he admitted with a bit of an embarrassed blush. "Got so into the basketball game last period that I lost track of time."

"Your teacher does that too?"

"A lot of teachers at this school do, actually. You'd be surprised at how effective it is at keeping people from being late."

"Hehe…yeah, I bet…" Grace giggled, though she wasn't quite sure why, he hadn't said anything particularly funny. Something about him just made her feel giddy inside, and something else that she couldn't quite put her finger on but made her feel an exciting tingle…

"Well, long as we're stuck being absent all period, wanna hang out together?" he offered.

"O-oh, yeah, that'd be great!" Grace exclaimed, her cheeks glowing.

"Awesome," Alex said with a grin. "C'mon, it's a beautiful day outside. We can take a walk around the school."

"Anything you want," Grace said dreamily, practically floating to her feet as she began walking with him, her eyes on him every step they took.

* * *

"…there are some exceptions, of course, but this pattern is largely followed by most small mammals…"

Mister Rice droned on, but Ellen was barely paying attention. Her eyes were locked onto the clock as they had been for the entire forty-five minutes of class so far, her stare urging the hands to move faster and the hands rather stubbornly refusing to do so. In fact they seemed to move slower than ever. Like they were mocking her. Like they knew she had to get out of there and refused to let her, drawing out the last five minutes of class as long as humanly possible.

_Damnit, time, move faster! _She silently cursed, growling at the clock and grinding her teeth. Grace was out there by herself, unattended…if someone came along and saw her in her state, who knew what could happen?

No, no, that was an exaggeration, she tried to calm herself. She was being paranoid. Grace wasn't going to go totally off the deep end with a complete stranger. At least she didn't think so.

But then if _Alex _came along…

"Are you even slightly paying attention?" Nanase whispered. "Because you're not borrowing my notes if you're not even trying."

"I'm freaked out about Grace, damnit…" Ellen whispered back.

"Will you drop that already? She's _fine_."

"I will not drop it until I figure out what's wrong with her…"

"Ugh, you're hopeless sometimes…" Nanase muttered and looked back at the teacher.

"…so to summarize, this cycle usually begins to take root in late winter, although it has been known to extend into early spring as well…"

Ellen ignored Mister Rice's drone, eyes locked on the minute hand. He had to stop talking soon. The clock had to move. It had to tick off five more minutes. Now four. Now three and a half.

"…instinct usually triggers shortly after the hibernation period most mammals go through to survive the cold winters…"

The teacher really needed to shut up. She had to get out of the room. She had to get to Grace. She had to make sure the girl was okay and not doing something incredibly stupid with Alex. She had to get Grace home, sit her down in a chair, and not let her leave until they'd talked out every detail of this problem and they got to the bottom of it; partly out of her own morbid curiosity, and partly for Tedd and Grace's own sakes, but mostly because she was not going to break her promise any further than it already had been.

"…affected species go into a period of heat, the instinctual desire to reproduce moving to the forefront of their brains…"

The only thing she couldn't figure out was _why_. Grace was naïve but she wasn't socially inept, or stupid. She knew the difference between thinking someone was cute and being legitimately attracted to them. This wasn't just thinking boys besides Tedd were cute. She was seriously attracted to them. All of them. _That_ was the real mystery. No one thought everyone was attractive; people had preferences, ideals, turn-ons and turn-offs.

Ellen blinked a bit. _Turn-ons_… she thought again. Is that it? Was she getting turned on by the guys she was seeing? Yes, it very well could be, Ellen reasoned. By Grace's own admission, she never thought much about the physical part of a relationship. And her naivety could certainly extend to the workings of sex and physical attraction and arousal. And if that was the case then of course she would be freaked out a little by feelings like that…

But even then, this seemed way stronger than what should be natural. And it didn't explain why she suddenly started having these feelings at all, or why she was being affected this way at the sight of just about any male, or why she became especially different around Alex in particular…no, no, it couldn't be as simple as that…

"…reproductive habits can be seen in almost all small mammals, from cats and dogs to chipmunks and squirrels…"

_Ugh, that guy is really distracting_, Ellen muttered inside her head. _I don't want to hear about your stupid squirrel sex, you loon…_

And abruptly Ellen froze. _Wait a second…squirrels…_

"These mammals during this time of year are compelled by the most powerful, basic instinct to reproduce as much as possible, often focusing most prominently on the more capable-looking mates, in order to help ensure the passing of good genes…"

Suddenly Ellen was paying rigid, rapt attention.

"…these reproductive instincts are not only among the most powerful instincts these mammals have, but also are theorized to be extremely difficult, if not impossible to control or resist. This may be largely due to a lack of nurture against this particular nature among non-human mammals, but whatever the reason, while in heat, these mammals will be driven to seek out the best and most capable-looking mates and…"

Ellen's jaw dropped in shock. _Ohhh, sh-_

_**BRRRRIIIIIIIIING!

* * *

**_

"…so I ended up having to totally improvise the play because my linemen weren't in proper position, and I see like five guys coming right at me…"

"Uh-huh…?" Grace murmured dreamily.

"So I go scrambling backward about ten yards, and I can hear coach screaming at me that I should have just dropped on the ball, but somehow I got around the guys and got it all back before I get hit in the shoulder and I go flying out of bounds right across the first down line!"

"Wow…" Grace marveled, looking at him in awe. "You must be like the best player on the team…"

"Oh, I don't know about that…" he replied modestly, scuffing the ground with his foot.

"You must be, if you saved lots of plays like that…" Grace countered, smiling wide as she scooted a bit closer to him. The two of them had walked around the entire school at least three, maybe four times; Grace hadn't really been counting, and she was only distantly aware that they were now leaning side by side against a shaded wall of the school facing the parking lot. She'd been much more concerned with nearly every word Alex had to say, and yet at the same time she hadn't listened to half of them because of how her eyes kept locking onto his sturdy, athletic features and his good-looking face and his wonderful smile full of perfect teeth…it did a very good job of drowning out that silly, nagging voice in the back of her head that seemed to think admiring Alex was a bad idea. What nonsense, Alex was a wonderful, perfect person, an ideal partner…

"Ah, well, thanks, Grace…" he finally answered, smiling that smile again. "I'm still not sure about _best_, but I'm flattered you think so…"

"You totally are…I mean, everything about you is…perfect…" she murmured, and suddenly it seemed like a very good idea to move closer to him, until they were shoulder to shoulder. And as though it were a match being struck, her body started filling with a tingling warmth.

Alex didn't fail to notice, blushing slightly at the contact. "Ah…heh…c'mon, perfect? That's a little much…"

"I don't think so…" Grace cooed, and now her body was getting quite warm and Alex's looked so very cool and inviting, like she could just press herself against it and quench the sudden heat she was feeling…

Alex looked at her oddly, and for some reason he seemed to be getting nervous. "Um…listen, Grace, uh…"

"Yes…?" she murmured back, and suddenly she was leaning her weight against him, pressing him to the wall, and it felt so nice, so pleasant and satisfying…and yet somehow not enough…she could still feel the heat, and it was quickly flaring, like a flame to dry timber; it needed a release, something to quench it, and beneath his nervous eyes she noticed very attractive-looking lips…

Distantly she heard Alex cough, felt him put his hands on her shoulders. "Grace, I…think I see where you're going with this, and I'm…really flattered, really…but, um…"

Grace had stopped paying attention, though. Suddenly, the only thought that seemed to be in her mind was how badly she wanted to kiss him. And without warning she surged forward and did exactly that. She heard Alex give a loud, muffled yelp of surprise, felt him starting to push on her shoulders, but she didn't budge an inch, because the rush of sensations filling her now as she pressed their lips together were incredible; her heart was racing, her mind was blissfully blank, the heat in her body flared up into a sudden, intense fireball. The sensations were like a flood, an addictive drug that completely consumed her…she needed to keep feeling them, she had to keep kissing him…nothing and no one else in the world seemed to exist…

…and so it went completely unnoticed to her when a car pulled into the parking lot and slowed to a stop near them, its driver freezing for just a moment as he saw the pair, before he hid his suddenly wet eyes behind enormous glasses and sped out of the parking lot without so much as a backwards glance.

* * *

Comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated, as always.


	9. What a Squirrel Wants

**Basic Instinct**

by CidGregor

* * *

_Chapter Nine: What a Squirrel Wants

* * *

_

"Where are you where are you where are you where are you…?" Ellen chanted under her breath, darting down the halls of the school and stopping in every bathroom, open classroom and empty hallway she could, desperate to find Grace. She'd hoped that the girl had patiently waited right outside the biology classroom so they could meet up again, but obviously that hadn't happened. Grace was nowhere in sight, and that didn't sit well with Ellen at all. If Grace ended up running into Alex and went off with him because she hadn't been there to keep her promise…

God, how could she have been so stupid? The obvious answer had been right there in biology class the entire time. It fit perfectly, right down to the last little detail. If only she'd paid more attention…

No, Ellen told herself with a sharp shake of her head. She couldn't think that way yet. The most important thing at that moment was to make she the girl was okay, separate her from Alex if necessary, and get her home without any further incident. There would be plenty of time to feel guilty once she found Grace.

IF she found Grace.

Ellen bolted outside, her eyes sweeping over the small mob of people climbing onto the school buses, but there was no sign of Grace there. Her gaze darted to the parking lot next, hoping perhaps she was waiting by the car ready to go home, or at the very least walking to Alex's car with him…but no, she wasn't there, either.

_Wait a second, what about Tedd..._ she suddenly remembered. _He was going to come and pick her up…_

Her eyes did another quick search, and this time, with a rush of relief, she noticed Elliot's car just beside the buses, and Tedd's purple-haired face behind the wheel. Her relief quickly evaporated, though, when she jogged closer and saw the tortured expression on his face, as he stared at something. And as Ellen followed his stare, her relief vanished completely, to be replaced by sheer horror at the sight that greeted her.

Grace and Alex stood together against the nearest wall of the school, leaning heavily against it. Or at least Alex was. Grace was leaning rather heavily on HIM. In fact it looked like she was practically trying to lay on top of him, the way she was grinding her body up against him and wrapping her arms around him. But the worst part of it by far was the almost sickening image of Grace furiously kissing Alex, shameless and uninhibited and, from Ellen's point of view, open-mouthed.

"Oh dear god I'm going to hurl…" Ellen murmured, holding her stomach.

_**SCREEEEEEEEEEEECHHH!**_

Ellen nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound, and her nose curled at the foul odor of burning rubber that followed right behind it. She whirled to look toward the dual affront to her senses, and saw Elliot's car in motion, a broken-looking Tedd driving it away from the sight as fast as he could.

"Oh no, no, no, no, NO, DAMNIT!" Ellen shouted in frustration, but it did no good. He was already gone.

Great. Now she REALLY felt bad.

Ellen growled and clenched her fists, spinning back to glare at the lip-locked couple. Obviously this was the sight that had driven Tedd away, and Ellen couldn't say she blamed him. Grace had just created a veritable laundry list of problems to pile on top of her existing ones, and Ellen was suddenly determined to stop the bleeding. It was time to start fixing things, and the travesty before her was the first thing on the list. She stomped up behind the pair, lifting her arms and opening her mouth, but before she could do a thing with either of them, Grace was pushed away from Alex's body, landing in Ellen's waiting, and surprised, arms.

"I said NO!" Alex blurted out as he shoved her, gasping for breath and looking around wildly.

"Whoa! What the hell?" Ellen shouted, catching her, and glaring at Alex. "What was that for?"

Alex, though, again to her complete surprise, looked more awkward and embarrassed than Ellen thought was possible, looking apologetically at Ellen for just a moment before looking around them again, as though searching for anyone who might have seen. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be that rough, but I didn't know what else to DO, she was all over me!"

"What, suddenly you grew a conscience?" Ellen snarled slightly, not letting herself be fazed by his odd reactions. "The hell is wrong with you, hitting on a girl with a boyfriend?"

"She has a boyfriend?" Alex echoed as he suddenly stared at her again, clearly shocked. "She never mentioned a boyfriend!"

"…" Ellen's jaw dropped slightly, her gaze turning on Grace now. "You didn't tell him about Tedd?"

"Mmm…who's Tedd…?" was her dreamy response, her eyes focused on Alex.

"…" Ellen's eyes became as big as saucers. "Ex-CUSE me?"

"Do you mind…?" she murmured, looking right past her at Alex again. "I was enjoying that kiss…even if he is playing hard to get…hehe…"

Ellen's jaw was practically to the pavement by now. "Okay, you have officially gone COMPLETELY off the deep end. I am taking you home, NOW."

"Hey, wait a minute, will someone explain to me what's going on here?" Alex nearly demanded. "One second I'm hanging out with someone I think is a nice new friend and the next second she's trying to…_make out_ with me!"

"Like you were complaining," Ellen growled, hoisting Grace up.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I was!" Alex countered. "I tried to tell her I wasn't interested in her like that, but she wouldn't listen! If my boyfriend saw that, he's going to flip!"

"Oh, please, you'd have to be gay to not want Gra-" Ellen froze mid-speech. "…I'm sorry, did…did you say…your boyfriend?"

"…" Alex reddened for a brief moment. "…I, uh…um…whoops…"

"…Whoa. You ARE ga-"

"Shh! Not so loud!" he shushed her, looking around conspiratorially. "Oh man, I hope no one heard that…"

"…So wait, all this time, you weren't, like, hitting on her?" Ellen marveled.

"No, of course not. I was just trying to make a friend, and I thought she was doing the same thing," Alex insisted. "Jeez, can't a guy be nice to a girl without being accused of hitting on her or getting hit on BY her?"

"…" Ellen stared at him in shock, and part of her wanted to probe further, but she shook it off after a moment. Grace had to come first. She could worry about getting his side of the story later. "Listen, um…Alex…I really, really hate to run off right now, but I need to deal with Grace, she's…um…she's going through a weird time, it's a long story, and I don't know exactly how to explain it. But I'm sorry she caused you trouble."

Alex sighed and rubbed his forehead, but eventually nodded. "It's alright…just, uh…don't say anything about…"

"I won't," she promised, and with a quick wave goodbye she dragged Grace away from him toward the parking lot.

"Heyyy, what're you doing? I wanna be with Alex…" Grace whined, sounding completely unlike herself.

"Grace, I love you and all…but shut up," Ellen ordered, hauling her into the car.

* * *

By the time Ellen had gotten her back to the Dunkel residence, Grace had returned to her right state of mind again. Ellen, however, would have almost preferred she was still lost in fantasy land, because the moment she realized what she'd done, she broke down into hysterics and began crying into Ellen's shoulder, and hadn't stopped for the last half-hour.

"Um…there, there…" Ellen tried awkwardly to comfort her as they sat on the living room couch. "It's gonna be okay…"

"No it won't…it won't ever be okay…!" Grace wailed. "I KISSED him! I KISSED ALEX! Why did I DO that?"

Ellen cleared her throat. "Yeah, um, Grace, about that, I think there's something you need to-"

"Oh God, what's WRONG with me?" Grace cut her off with another sob. "I just completely lost control, I didn't even CARE for a minute, I…!"

"Yeah, I know, Grace, just listen for a second, you're-"

"I felt like I wanted…like I wanted to-!"

"I know!" Ellen shouted, stopping her. "…I know."

"You do…?"

"Yeah. You wanted to have sex with him, didn't you?"

Grace jolted, partly from the unpleasant reality of Ellen's words, and partly in surprise that she had figured it out. "How did you know…?"

"…Grace, I think I've found out what's been happening to you lately," Ellen began.

"You have?" Grace nearly burst out, wiping roughly at her tears. "Tell me, please! Whatever it is, tell me, so I can get rid of it!"

"…Uhhm…see, that's the thing…I don't think you CAN get rid of it."

"Wh…what? Why not?"

"Well, because…you see…well, if it's what I think it is, anyway…you wouldn't be able to get rid of it because it's kinda sorta ingrained into your DNA…"

"My DNA is making me cheat on Tedd?"

Ellen reddened a bit. 'N-not exactly. It's more like…"

"Like what?"

Ellen reddened even further. "…Grace, I think…I think you might be in heat."

"…" Grace stared blankly for a moment, the words apparently meaningless to her. "In heat…? You mean like…I'm getting too much sun?"

"…No, um…y'see…"

Grace squeezed Ellen's shoulder. "Ellen, you gotta tell me…I want to know…"

"…" Ellen sighed, and nodded resignedly. "Okay, but you're not going to like it…"

"It's not like I don't deserve it, after what I did…" Grace murmured dejectedly.

"No, Grace, don't say that…"

"It's the truth…"

"No, it's not!" Ellen insisted. "That's just it, Grace…what's been happening to you is totally out of your control!"

"…H-huh…?"

"See…we learned something new in biology class today…we were talking about how smaller mammals reproduce, and well…"

"Yeah…?" Grace probed.

"…Most of them have this…cycle…where they get a super-powerful urge to…well…have sex."

"…" Grace's eyes widened a bit. "Wh…why?"

"So they can have babies, basically. It's all part of the whole circle of life thing. Ensure the survival of the species an' stuff."

"…Aww…" Grace managed to coo, warmed just slightly by the thought of little baby animals.

"Yeah, so…basically they get that instinct, and it's called being in heat, and it happens to a lot of small mammals…including squirrels."

It was then that Grace started to get it. "S…squirrels…?"

"Yeah…and since you've got some squirrel DNA…I figured that's what was happening to you. Because, see, it's supposed to be this really super-strong instinct that they can't really control, it just makes them look for the best-looking 'mates' and, uh…y'know…makes them wanna…"

Grace was pale as a ghost by now, staring blankly at Ellen. "My DNA is making me want to run out and…and do…_dirty things_ with Alex because he LOOKS GOOD? So I can have babies?"

"…Basically, yeah, if my guess is right…and since you _were_ focusing a lot on good-looking guys like Alex, I figured those instincts were probably tellin' ya it'd be a really good idea to, uh…y'know, um…get some lovin' on with him…and uh…that's how I knew…" Ellen finished, blushing horribly by contrast.

"…" Grace fell silent, turning to stare blankly off into space, as though she'd gone numb. But at least she wasn't crying anymore, Ellen thought, and that was surely a plus.

"…Grace?" Ellen tried.

"…So that's why…why I felt so attracted to all the guys?" Grace asked. "Why Tedd and Elliot and Justin all felt really attractive? Why I…kissed Alex…?"

"…Well, it was kinda way past a kiss by the time I got there, but…yeah, basically," Ellen said.

"Ohh God, I can't believe I did that…" Grace moaned pitiably, burying her face in her hands. "What's Alex going to think of me now…? He probably thinks I'm insane…ohh, and how am I gonna tell Tedd…?"

Ellen felt a jab of guilt at those words. "Uhh…about that…um…Tedd kind of…saw you."

Grace twitched violently, whirling on her. "He what?"

"Yeah…I'd talked to him earlier and told him maybe it would be a good idea for you guys to spend some time together instead of with Alex, and he was coming to pick you up, but then he saw that and…well…" Ellen trailed off, wincing.

"Ohh God, this is the worst day EVER…!"

"I'm sorry, Grace…I thought it would be a good idea, it just…backfired…"

Grace hung her head again, looking about ready to collapse into renewed tears, but she held them back, resolved to just sniffling now.

"…Are you…gonna be okay?" Ellen asked after a few moments.

"…I don't know…" Grace murmured. "Tedd saw me kiss another boy…he must HATE me now…"

"Oh, come on, I'm sure he doesn't HATE you…"

"After what he saw, he probably thinks I want to…break up…"

"Grace, come on, be reasonable…if you just explain everything to him, he'll understand…"

"It doesn't matter…even if he doesn't hate me now, he probably will soon," Grace countered with another sniffle. "If…if what you're saying about my DNA is true, then…what am I supposed to do about it? It's been getting worse and worse every day. How can I even trust myself to go outside if I'm just going to pounce all over any boy that I see…?"

"I…I don't know. I wish I had an answer, Grace, but I just don't know enough about the subject. I don't know how to make a natural, basic instinct just go away…"

Ellen looked down in defeat as she spoke, but Grace on the other hand seemed to gain a sudden concentration at her words, as though something had hit her.

"Grace…?"

"…natural instincts…" she murmured, dawning comprehension growing across her face as she jumped to her feet. "I…I have to see Tedd…"

Ellen blinked in surprise. "…Right now?"

"Yes…right now…he deserves to know the truth…"

"…" Ellen nodded. "Yeah…that's a good idea. Better talk it out ASAP then wait around until it gets really bad…"

"Thanks, Ellen…I don't know what I would've done without you today…"

Ellen shook her head, guilt returning to her quickly. "Don't say that. I'm the whole reason this mess got this far. I wasn't paying attention and let you walk off and miss class…if you'd been there we could have figured this out together right then and there, and that stupid kiss never would've happened…I'm sorry, Grace, it's all my fault…I broke my promise…"

"None of this mess is your fault, Ellen," Grace assured her. "It's all MY weird DNA…there was no way you could've known."

"But still, I-"

"No, Ellen," Grace said firmly. "Don't blame yourself. I never should have put the burden on you. This is MY problem, and darn it, I'm gonna go FIX it!"

"Fix it? Fix it how?" Ellen echoed. "You can't just make instincts like that go away…"

"Maybe not…or maybe I can. I have an idea."

"…what kind of idea?"

"…I'll tell you later. If it works…" Grace murmured.

Ellen searched her expression for some hint of what the other girl was planning, but found nothing. Which seriously worried her. "…Grace, are you sure you know what you're doing…?" she probed, her curiosity unwilling to be suppressed.

"I hope so…" Grace said, far from convincingly, and was out the door before Ellen could say another word.

* * *

Comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated, as always.


	10. What a Squirrel Needs

**Basic Instinct**

by CidGregor

* * *

_Chapter Ten: What a Squirrel Needs

* * *

_

It was strange. He thought he'd be crying more. Heck, he thought he'd be outright sobbing and leaving big wet stains on his pillow. But no, it wasn't anything quite so dramatic. No sobs broke the silence of his room, no tears rolled down his face other than the slight wetness to his eyes. He just felt blank and hollow inside. Like he couldn't feel anything anymore. Which pretty much wasn't far from the truth. He felt the vague pulls of anger and sadness and heartbreak, certainly, and he was sure he'd feel them full force eventually. But for the most part he was just numb, unsure if he could ever even begin to wrap his mind around what he'd seen.

Not that what he had seen was confusing or ambiguous in any way, of course, Tedd thought with a slightly bitter laugh. That part was pretty clear. Grace kissed Alex. And he could say that with pretty solid confidence, rather than the other way around. It was painfully obvious that it had been Grace doing the kissing and making the advances. She'd been pressing him to the wall, practically crawling on top of him in her eagerness to squeeze their lips together, so insistent on it that Alex had barely seemed able to get a word in edgewise, figuratively speaking. Tedd had once liked to think that that part was never lacking in their relationship, that maybe despite his physical inadequacies, just maybe, he might not be too bad a kisser. But good lord, he'd _never_ seen Grace kiss anyone like that before, least of all him. That level of passion just didn't ever come out of her while they were together.

Clearly, however, Alex brought it out of her almost without even trying. He and Grace had known each other for a few days at the most, and already he had her so turned on she couldn't keep herself from furiously making out with him in public. There was no way in hell Tedd could compete with that. And really, he should have seen it coming. From the moment she had met Alex, she just hadn't been the same. Somewhere inside of him, way in the back of his head, a small, meek voice had known days ago that it was the beginning of the end, but like an idiot, he'd pushed that voice down and suppressed it, had dared to hope that things would turn out all right.

But just like his mother, Grace had ditched him. That voice had been right. Of course it had been right. It was always right. He should have listened to it. He should have known better. Maybe then he could have spared himself at least a little of the heartbreak he felt…

A soft knock at his door reached his ears just then, telling him it was Grace who was behind it. She was probably stopping by to tell him it was over. He hoped as much, anyway. At least if that was the case it would mean she was done lying to him, Tedd thought with a sudden and very unpleasant swoop of anger. If she'd wanted to be with Alex so bad she could have had the courtesy to not lead him on for a few extra days with insincere kisses and fake 'I love you's.

"Tedd…?" he quiet voice drifted in through the door. "Are you in there…?"

"It's open," Tedd grunted, surprising himself with how hollow the words sounded.

Grace must have been surprised by it too, because it was several seconds before she actually opened the door, and several more before she stepped far enough into the room so that she could see him, her audible footsteps telling Tedd she was human for the moment. He felt another slight bit of surprise as he saw her as well, and noticed her eyes were red and puffy, like she'd been crying. For a second it yanked violently at his heartstrings and made him want to jump up and hug her and kiss her and do anything to make her feel better; but then he remembered what he'd seen at school and why she was probably here to see him, and that desire was pushed down again.

"…So…" Grace began slowly, "…I guess…you saw what happened at school…"

"I'm surprised you even noticed me. You seemed so _busy_," Tedd shot back, more bitterly than he'd intended, and he was thankful he wasn't looking at her at the moment because he was sure the words would make that look on her face even more gut wrenching.

Indeed, though he didn't notice it, Grace winced and had to blink back a couple of tears before she could go on. "Tedd, you have no idea how sorry I am, you have every right to be upset…"

"I'm fine," Tedd lied. "I get it. You want him. That's great. Go on, you can have him. I don't care."

"Yes you do, Tedd…" Grace said knowingly. "But it's not like that, I swear…"

"You _made out with him._ In _public_."

"I know, Tedd, but-"

"You never kissed me like that even in _private_."

"Tedd, I swear, I can explain-"

"Well maybe I don't want to hear it!" Tedd suddenly shouted. "Maybe I already know exactly what you're going to say and I don't need to have it rubbed in my face! I get it, okay? We're over! You don't want me anymore, you want him!"

"We're not 'over,' Tedd, I swear! Please, Tedd, just let me explain…" Grace begged. "I understand why you're upset! I would be, too! But I swear, if you just give me a chance to-"

"To what?" Tedd stopped her. "Give me a good reason for lying to me the last few days with all that 'I love you' talk?"

"I'd never!" Grace said back immediately. "I'd never lie about that, Tedd, I love you more than anything!"

"Then what, was making out with Alex just an 'experiment' or something?" Tedd suggested with a derisive sneer.

"No, Tedd, I swear, that…that wasn't _me_…"

"Don't lie to me!" Tedd shouted. "The only way anyone could be pretending to be you is with your clone form in the TF Gun, and no one's used that without my knowing it!"

Grace winced again. "No, I mean…it _was_ me, but…it wasn't…_me_…"

"It _was_ you but it _wasn't_ you?" Tedd snorted disbelievingly. "What, are you schizophrenic now or someth-"

"Tedd, STOP IT!" Grace suddenly screamed.

If only in sheer surprise, Tedd shut his mouth, and his surprise kept growing when he realized just how upset she looked now. Tears were running freely down her cheeks, though she did nothing to stop them or wipe them away, and she was shaking so badly Tedd wondered how she was still standing. What was going on? Why was she so upset…? Were things really not the way he'd convinced himself they were? Could he really dare to get his hopes up…?

"Please, just…stop talking like that…" Grace said, her voice dropping to a meek whisper. "It hurts…it hurts so much…"

Once again Tedd felt that intense pull at his heart to jump up and pull her into a crushing hug and never let her go. And this time the urge wasn't going away. That little voice in his head was still telling him not to be a fool, not to get his hopes up again, but even that part of him hated seeing the pain in Grace's expression and agreed to shut up for the moment.

"…All right," Tedd finally said. His voice still sounded hollow, but at least the anger and malice was gone from it. "…I'm sorry."

"…It's okay…" Grace said back. "…I've probably hurt you even worse than that…"

Tedd said nothing to that.

"…But I swear, Tedd, I never, ever meant to hurt you…just give me a chance to explain what happened…"

"…Okay," Tedd agreed, against the urge of that voice in his head, that didn't want him to get his hopes up. He couldn't listen to it. The risk was worth it. He loved her too much not to hope. "…I'm listening."

"Thank you…" she whispered, and took a few breaths to collect herself. "…Tedd, there's…something I've been keeping from you for a couple of days…"

In the pit of his stomach, Tedd winced immediately. That was not the start he'd hoped for.

"I…haven't really been myself lately. I've been having these weird feelings and dreams and…urges, all week."

"…Like what?" Tedd dared to ask.

"I've been…noticing boys more, for some reason."

Again Tedd winced inwardly. "…Oh."

"…At first it really wasn't much of anything…little things like…noticing Justin's hair looked nice, or Elliot had a cute smile, or…"

"…Um…" Tedd muttered, coughing.

Grace blushed. "…or…having…naughty dreams…"

Tedd blushed right behind her. "…O-oh…"

"I didn't really think anything of it at first," Grace quickly moved on. "I mean it was a little weird, but I was handling it…until I met Alex…"

"…So you _do _like him," Tedd said quietly.

"…I…found him attractive, yeah…" Grace admitted. "But it was still weird. When I was around him…I'd just go blank. I wouldn't even be aware of what I was doing. I would just fawn over him and laugh with him and get all overheated watching him play sports and-"

"Is this supposed to make me feel better?" Tedd stopped her. "Because it's not."

"Tedd, I'm trying to say, it wasn't _me_ feeling that way. Not really. Not this me standing here. Some…other part of me took over every time I saw him, and I…I couldn't control myself, Tedd…that awful part of me did whatever it wanted…that's the part of me that…kissed him…"

Tedd frowned. "…Grace, I know hormones can be really strong and really confusing, but you can't blame it on some kind of 'other self.' Everyone had urges they have to keep under control."

"Not like this," Grace insisted. "This is way worse than that, trust me. Ellen's seen it, Ellen knew something was really, really wrong with me…and just today she figured it out…"

"Figured what out?"

"…Tedd, d'you know what happens to a lot of mammals after winter is over? Including squirrels?"

"Well of course, after they wake up from hibernation, a lot of mammals go into a reproduc…tive…cy…cle…" Tedd trailed off.

Grace nodded slowly, blushing deep. "…Yeah…"

Tedd's eyes widened, staring at her. "Are…are you saying you're…"

Grace nodded. "…That's what Ellen thinks, anyway. Because of my squirrel DNA. And it fits. It explains…why I kept noticing boys, and why I was all over Alex. When certain mammals are in heat, including squirrels, they get really, really strong urges to find the most…physically appealing mates. And to…um…"

"…Have sex with them," Tedd finished rather bluntly.

Grace shuddered slightly, but nodded. "…Yes."

Tedd stared at her for a long time, trying to comprehend everything she'd said. Was it really possible? Did she not really want to go out with Alex instead? Was it really just primitive, basic instinct that made her kiss him? Because he was a 'physically appealing mate?' But then why Alex? Why not him…?

"…You're really serious about this," Tedd eventually stated.

Grace nodded slowly. "I'd never lie about something like this, Tedd. I swear it's the truth. These instincts keep telling me to…find the best mates I can…"

"And you chose Alex," Tedd added, his tone slowly darkening again.

"No, Tedd, I didn't _choose_ anyone!" Grace quickly corrected him. "I didn't have any control over it! The instincts just kept taking over! My body was doing it all on its own!"

"It still chose Alex. It's pretty obvious what that means."

"But Tedd, you're-"

"Don't say it, Grace," Tedd muttered. "You know it's a lie. I've always been this shrimpy little stick figure with big stupid glasses. Alex is a Greek God compared to me. Of course you'd pick him over me. You'd pick _anyone_ over me…"

"No, Tedd, I wouldn't! That's the point! How I felt had nothing to do with it!" Grace shouted.

"Yeah, well, I guess it doesn't matter now," Tedd blew it off. "Obviously these instincts of yours are telling you to have sex with Alex, so you might as well go and-"

"Tedd Verres, don't you DARE finish that sentence!"

Tedd nearly stumbled at the suddenly furious words flowing from Grace's lips. He'd never heard her talk like that before. Not once.

"…Grace-"

"No, you be QUIET and LISTEN to me!" she ordered him. "I don't care what those stupid instincts want me to do! That horrible side of me just wants nothing but empty, meaningless sex! It doesn't care even a little bit about love! But I do, Tedd! I don't want meaningless sex, I want to be with my boyfriend who I love more than anything else in the whole world! I love YOU, Tedd! I want YOU, I…I _need _you…!"

Tedd's knees shook. "Y…you do…?"

"Of course I do, you stupid idiot…!" she insisted, her anger fading and her normal self slowly returning. "I don't care who these stupid instincts are telling me to latch on to! They can tell me all they want that I should be having sex with Alex, but no matter what, Tedd, I will never, ever, _ever_ want that, and the only person I ever _would _want that with is…!"

"…is…?" Tedd slowly asked, blushing hard, somehow already knowing her answer.

"…is…you…" Grace whispered the last bit.

"…O-oh…" Tedd murmured, stunned nevertheless. "…R…really…?"

Grace, too, was crimson by now. "…who'd you think the dirty dreams were about, huh…?"

"…Grace…"

"…So there," she finished. "That's why…all this stuff that's been happening this week…that's the reason. I'm sorry, Tedd…I should've told you in the first place…I was just so embarrassed, I couldn't make myself say something…and then it just kept getting worse…"

Tedd put a hand to his heart, still feeling crippling pain there. But it was a new pain now. Now instead of the pain of thinking he'd lost Grace, it was the pain of berating himself for ever thinking anything badly of her. He'd been a fool, all right. Not for hoping, but for ever giving that hope up.

"…Can you ever forgive me…?" Grace whispered.

Immediately Tedd drew her into the tight, protective hug he'd been wanting to give her since the conversation started. "I'm the one who should be apologizing, Grace…I'm the one who let myself think badly of you…I'm the one who didn't trust you…"

"I still should've told you the truth…" Grace countered. "Maybe if I had, none of this would've happened…"

"You had no way of knowing what was really happening to you…" Tedd assured her. "No one did. Yours is a…pretty unique case…"

"Yeah…" Grace admitted. "Not many squirrel girls in the world, huh…?"

"One is all I want…"

Grace looked up at him with a renewed smile, and before he could say another word she was kissing him and he was kissing back, the weights that had been hanging over them finally lifted.

Almost.

Tedd felt Grace break the kiss earlier than he would have liked, and as he opened his eyes he saw that she was oddly flushed and breathing heavier than usual. "Grace?" he asked. "Are you okay…?"

"Yeah…" she assured him. "It's just…you know, the instincts thing…"

"…They're still getting worse, aren't they?"

"…Yes," Grace admitted, and again she began to blush. "…I…I don't think I can keep fighting them anymore, Tedd. If I do, sooner or later…something's going to snap…"

"…Well…" Tedd started, looking off distantly in thought. "I could…look into some TF Gun modifications and try to isolate and suppress that gene-"

"No, Tedd…" she said, putting her hands on his cheeks and pulling him to face her again. "I meant…I don't _want_ to fight it anymore…"

"…" Tedd suddenly gulped. "O-oh…um…w-wow, Grace, I…"

"…Like I said…if I keep fighting it, it just gets worse. It's just like any other instinct. You fight sleep and the instinct to sleep gets stronger and stronger. Same with eating. Same with breathing. And the only way to really get rid of the instinct is to…do what it says…"

"B-but…Grace, it…it wouldn't be right…" Tedd stammered. "You haven't been yourself…I-I don't want to take advantage of…"

"You're not…" Grace insisted. "Honestly, Tedd…I'm thinking more clearly now than I have been all week. And…there's nothing I want more than…to be with you…"

"…I…want to be with you too…" Tedd admitted.

Grace smiled wider, not needing to say anything else. She kissed him again, and this time it was much more electric, much more heated and passionate. He almost couldn't believe it was happening, really. But when they fell back and landed on his bed together mid-kiss and bonked their heads together somewhat painfully, he was pretty positive it was real.

"S-sorry…" Grace murmured.

"It's okay…" Tedd assured her, and gulped again at the feeling of her gentle weight pressed on top of him. "You, um…you're sure about this…?"

"…" Grace nodded. "Completely…"

"…Heh…okay then…"

A second later their lips met once again. And unlike the previous ones, it would be quite a while before this one was truly broken.

* * *

_Epilogue: One romantic weekend later…_

* * *

"Wow…no wonder I didn't hear from you 'til this morning."

Grace nodded, wearing a big smile on her face as she rooted around through her locker amidst the general din of the Monday morning masses chattering and slamming locker doors in the minutes before the first bell of the day. "Yeah…I guess I was pretty busy…hehe…"

"So you patched everything up with him?"

Grace nodded. "Mmhmm. He was so understanding…I can't believe how understanding he was…"

"He must really love you."

Grace glowed. "Yeah…he really does…and I really love him too…"

"Guess that kiss was really meant for him, then, huh?"

Grace winced at that, and closed her locker so that she could see her friend's face. "…About that, Alex…"

Alex shook his head, slapping his own locker closed and dropping his books for the day in his backpack. "Grace, you really don't have to-"

"Yes I do…I have to say I'm sorry," she cut him off. "…I was…totally out of line the other day."

"…It's okay, Grace, really…everything turned out okay, didn't it?"

"Still…it could've been a lot worse. But I swear it's never gonna happen again," she added quickly. "I didn't even know what I was doing, I wasn't thinking straight. Normally I NEVER would've done something like that. I was just…repressing a lot of stuff…but it's taken care of now. And I'd…really like it if we could still be friends."

Alex smiled slightly. "Of course we're still friends, Grace."

"Really? You're not mad or anything…?"

"Nah…trust me, I know what you mean about being repressed…and it was just a kiss."

Grace blushed a bit. "I'm really sorry…I hope I didn't mess things up with your boyfriend…"

"I promise, we're fine. Forget about it. Water under the bridge."

Grace smiled at that. "Thank you…"

"Don't mention it," he said, smiling back. "Still want to have that video game night sometime?"

Grace nodded immediately. "Absolutely…but um…can I bring my boyfriend…?"

"The more the merrier," he agreed. "We can make a double date out of it, even."

"Awesome," Grace said with a grin. "And maybe we can try playing foots ball!"

"Heh…it's football…"

"Oh, right…and um…how do you play, again?" she asked, turning to walk to class.

Alex chuckled, and turned to walk with her. "Alright, alright…it goes something like this…"

* * *

**THE END**

* * *

Thanks for reading, everyone. More EGS fics are in production, hopefully they'll see the light of day, eventually.

Comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated, as always.


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